Thursday, March 22, 2007

Mystic Pizza

In October of 2003, Pizza Hut , home of the "Big New Yorker Sausage Lover`s pizza " ( which by the way for a quick three slices you ultimately ingest an impressive 96 grams of fat and 1,830 calories) presented a new item on the menu in response to increasing attack from the media and public health advocates for not offering healthier, lower fat items. Fit `n Delicious, was promoted as a health conscious pizza with 25% less fat than the regular pizza recipe and between 22g and 26g of net carbohydrates. With the help of Ogilvy PR, Pizza Hut launched the Fit `n Delicious Pizza to consumer media.

As a college student, living in a sorority house, the pizza aroma is one that frequents late night study sessions, Friday afternoons and long meetings and to be honest I am somewhat surprised that I have never heard anything about the Fit `n Delicious option at Pizza Hut (given the high calorie count God knows I would be all about the healthier option). I decided to do a little survey on my own to make sure I wasn't the only one who had missed the low fat pizza bandwagon and asked my housemates if they had heard anything about Fit `n Delicious Pizza-15 girls later no one had any idea what I was talking about. I then took my little survey one step further by calling the local Pizza Hut and ordering this mysterious Fit `n Delicious pizza and still, three employees and one confused manger later, no one had any idea what I was talking about.

Does this healthy pizza alternative even exist? Or way this just a quick fix to a very public issue? According to Ira Rosenstein, co-producer of "Shopping Smart" and Supermarket Guru online contributor, often times the healthy options are hard to find. Rosenstein writes, " The Fit `n Delicious Pizza sounds great. But try to find them! Fancy press releases are issued! But try to find them...The pizza is not featured on the menu or in the literature. Makes one question a company`s really commitment to low fat food."

While both Ogilvy PR and Pizza Hut seemed failed to really promote the new and improved pizza to the public, they did take the initiative to create a healthy option and in response to growing concern about America`s increasing obesity epidemic.

For more information about Pizza Hut and the Ogilvy PR case study visit:
http://www.ogilvypr.com/case-studies/pizza-hut/cfm
http://www.supermarketguru.com
http://pizzahut.com