



OK, this post was going to be about the rubber Land Before Time puppets at Pizza Hut. But the more I thought about it and the more I researched Pizza Hut, the more I realized I had a lot more to say about Pizza Hut than I thought. So I'll get to the Land Before Time puppets, but let me start on a more general topic.

Pizza Hut (before it sucked).



Let me just start by saying- the Pizza Hut of today is NOTHING like the Pizza Hut of the 70's and 80's... and even the 90's. Although I would say that the 90's is when we saw the decline of quality and the the fall of the pizza titan. When they started trading good service, great quality and fresh toppings for gimmicks, frozen toppings and cheap pizza. One of those gimmicks was the Pizza Head Show, which was a direct rip off of the "Mr. Bill Show" from SNL. The commercials were even directed by Walter Williams who created Mr. Bill, except they kinda' sucked. Mr. Bill is the kind of thing that's funny once or twice- but you're not going to sell me pizza with it. I'm going to buy you're pizza, because you have good pizza... not because your VP of marketing saw the Mr. Bill show and thought it was funny. By the way... Mr. Bill ran on snl in the late 70s and early 80's. At the height of his popularity he had a movie in 1986. The Pizza Head Show ads ran from 1993-1997... fail. Ok- before all that though, there was a time when Pizza Hut equaled awesomeness. When I was a kid, going to Pizza Hut was an occasion. And not just birthday party or payday occasions (those were relegated to McDonalds). If we were going to Pizza Hut, one of two things happened. Either Mom and Dad got a massive tax return or Christ was coming back... because I heard the hallelujah chorus when we'd pull in to the Hut's parking lot. What was great about Pizza hut is you could smell it a mile a way. So it's not like it could stay a surprise for to long- we'd sniff that out like police dogs at a Dave Matthews concert. Every pizza place has it's own smell... but Pizza Hut was the best. I can't even describe it. The aroma's were just so strong when you walked in. It was hearty and tangy and the aroma just lingered thick in the entire restaurant. You'd go home and the next day, you'd want to wear the same clothes from the day before because they were still pungent of pizza pie. The atmosphere of the place was always real cool.

They had these stained glass chandeliers that said pizza hut and all the decor was in dark red with brick walls. It just felt classy... at least for pizza. But it also felt homemade, and they knew it- they're marketing in the 80's even hearkened to a sense of nostalgia.

















my personal favorite pizza hit commercial, happened to be on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie before the film would start.



Finally, I'll wrap it up with a commercial promoting the Land Before Time Puppets.

Gimmicky? yes. Awesome.. yes. :D



