Update from AP, October 15, 2012: Pizza Hut rethinks presidential debate stunt
Could pepperoni spoil presidential debate?
by Candice Choi and Mae Anderson
AP
October 10, 2012
New York (AP) – During the next presidential debate, the candidates will be pondering the important questions of our time. But the most controversial may be “Sausage or pepperoni?”
Pizza Hut is offering a lifetime of free pizza – one large pie a week for 30 years – or a check for $15,600 to anyone who poses the question to either President Barack Obama or Republican candidate Mitt Romney during the live Town Hall-style debate next Tuesday.
The proposed stunt, which the pizza chain announced Tuesday, threatens to tick off millions of viewers who are expected to tune in to the debate to hear what the candidates have to say about the economy, health care and other serious concerns facing this country.
“It’s a terrible waste of time for the presidential candidates, the people who organize the debate and everyone who wants to listen,” said Mickey Sheridan, a 43–year-old bartender from Queens, N.Y., who is a Pizza Hut fan. “They should find some other way to advertise.”
Pizza Hut’s move comes as marketers continue to look for new ways to engage TV audiences that increasingly are resistant to their traditional commercials. It’s also happening at a time when Americans are paying closer attention to presidential debates. On Oct. 3, an estimated 67.2 million people watched the first debate between Obama and Romney, the largest TV audience for a presidential debate since 1992, according to Nielsen’s ratings service.
It’s not the first time a question that could be seen as frivolous has been asked of a president or candidate during a live, televised events. One of the most famous moments in TV history came during a 1994 MTV Town Hall when an audience member asked then-President Bill Clinton whether he wore “Boxers or briefs?” Clinton’s sheepish response, “Usually briefs,” became an indelible moment in pop culture.
But such moments don’t always end well. During Obama’s 2009 State of the Union address, for instance, South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson yelled out “You lie, you lie.” Wilson quickly apologized but was widely criticized by members of both parties for the breach of decorum.
“I think people are frustrated with the political process, but they don’t want it to become a zoo,” said Allen Adamson, managing director of branding firm Landor Associates in New York.
It can be even more difficult for marketers to get away with such outbursts. While companies long have used hot political topics to gain publicity for their brands, it can backfire. For example, there was backlash in February 2011 when Kenneth Cole compared the Arab Spring uprisings to a frenzy over the U.S. designer’s spring collection. The company later apologized.
“Context really matters,” said Deborah Mitchell, Clinical Professor of Marketing at Ohio State University. “Political satire is fine if it’s in the context of where people are expecting it. When context is violated that’s when you run into trouble.”
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