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"Get Stuffed": Attitudes Towards Pizza Hut's Outdoor Advertising Campaign
Abstract
As advertising agencies try to become more creative to communicate to the marketplace and gain awareness of their client's product or service, there wil be advertisements which the general public perceive as "offensive." This paper analyses a campaign by Pizza Hut for a style of stuffed crust pizza which tells people to "Get Stuffed" by surveying attitudes towards the advertisement and reasons for an advertisement being offensive.
... Some authors have claimed that the use of provocative or controversial images in advertising has become more common over the last twenty years (Severn, Belch and Belch, 1990;Pope, Voges and Brown, 2004). The use of controversial images has been successful for a number of organizations in the past (for example, Evans and Sumandeep, 1993;Hornery, 1996;Waller, 1999a;Irvine, 2000;Mc-Intyre, 2000;Phau and Prendergast, 2001;Dahl, Frankenberger and Manchanda, 2003). For example, French Connection UK has become an internationally recognized brand based on overtly sexual images with the "fcuk" logo, Pizza Hut successfully encouraged people to try its new "stuffed crust" pizza by telling them to "get stuffed," and companies like Wonderbra, Love Kylie and Elle Macpherson have gained a large amount of publicity with inexpensive controversial campaigns (Waller, 1999a;Crosier and Erdogan, 2001;Miller, 2003). ...
... The use of controversial images has been successful for a number of organizations in the past (for example, Evans and Sumandeep, 1993;Hornery, 1996;Waller, 1999a;Irvine, 2000;Mc-Intyre, 2000;Phau and Prendergast, 2001;Dahl, Frankenberger and Manchanda, 2003). For example, French Connection UK has become an internationally recognized brand based on overtly sexual images with the "fcuk" logo, Pizza Hut successfully encouraged people to try its new "stuffed crust" pizza by telling them to "get stuffed," and companies like Wonderbra, Love Kylie and Elle Macpherson have gained a large amount of publicity with inexpensive controversial campaigns (Waller, 1999a;Crosier and Erdogan, 2001;Miller, 2003). ...
... This reflects an increased use of outdoor billboards for controversial images and products over this time which has resulted in a large amount of publicity for the brand, in particular campaigns for hair product JOICO, Pizza Hut, adultshop. com, Gucci's fragrance "Envy," and Windsor Smith shoes (Waller, 1999a;Purcell, 1999;Creer, 2000;Kirwood, 2000;Norrie, 2005). The strategy for the advertisers would be to place a controversial advertisement on general exhibition to be seen by the public at large with the intention to generate extra publicity through controversy and complaints. ...
A number of advertisers have used the strategy of controversial images (fear, sexual), or promoted their controversial product (alcohol, underwear), in a way to get the audiences' attention and a positive reaction. However, the use of controversial advertising can also potentially offend people and create a negative reaction. This article discusses controversial advertising and proposes a conceptual model of responses to controversial advertising.
... Even though a good number of studies have been dedicated to investigating attitude towards controversial advertising (De Run, et al., 2010;Fam, et al., 2004;Waller, 1999aWaller, , 1999b, there is still a dearth of knowledge as to what actually forms such attitude, which in turn predicts intention and behaviour. ...
... It is further intensified by the rapid progression of communication technologies since advertisements can now be seen by people in any part of the world (Waller & Fam, 2000). The rise of controversial advertising is mainly generated by the fact that advertising with fresh ideas and even unexpected elements can be successful in gaining awareness or winning attention and increasing profits in complex societies (Dahl, et al., 2003;McIntyre, 2000;Pope, et al., 2004;Waller, 1999b). As a result, understanding attitude towards controversial advertising becomes a major interest among marketing researchers and practitioners. ...
This study aims to determine the beliefs about advertising of two controversial products, namely political parties and sexual diseases prevention. The theory of reasoned action was utilized as underlying premise to elicit beliefs about controversial advertising in order to understand the formation of attitude towards the advertising. A qualitative approach by means of personal interview was adopted to explore the relatively unknown phenomenon. Subsequently, 43 interviews were conducted in Sarawak and the transcripts were then content-analyzed by multiple coders. The findings show that there are 11 statements of belief for the advertising of political parties and 6 statements for the advertising of sexual diseases prevention. Although both types of advertising are primarily considered as a source of information, their descriptions are largely different. While the advertising of political parties is mainly believed to be giving misleading information and for personal interest, the advertising of sexual diseases prevention is regarded as a form of education when executed appropriately. Therefore, the former must be carried out with care to avoid negative responses, and the latter should be done fittingly. This articulates the underlying consideration that there are different beliefs by type of advertising, and about what might create controversy.
... Pizza Hut successfully wooed mass to try its new "stuffed crust" pizza by telling them to "get stuffed," and companies like Wonderbra, Love Kylie and Elle Macpherson gained huge volume of publicity with inexpensive controversial campaigns. (Waller, 1999a;Crosier and Erdogan, 2001;Miller, 2003) (Waller, 2006). He also mentioned that such controversial messages created negative response among the mass, causing offences. ...
In the era of globalization, everyone is in competition with others. The world of advertising is also not an exception. At any cost, advertisers want to woo the attention of the viewers towards their product. Creative strategy of the advertising agencies knows no bound when it comes to the business term. Models also follow no guidelines of moral sense while exposing them in front of cameras with a message to promote the product. The goal is just one and single-to sell the product by hook or by crook. Overtly and covertly, the advertisers break ethical guidelines, challenge the norms set up by the supervisory bodies and carry out their task. When protest erupts by concerned bodies in the society against these advertisements, either the advertisers drop those advertisements from being broadcast for a temporary period or move up to the court to fight for their reasons. But the proliferation of new media keeps those controversial advertisements alive in society. In terms of advertising, controversial messages are displayed, broadcast and disseminated to the society which challenges the very ethical set up of the traditional system of the society practiced since times immemorial. This research paper focuses on the violation of the advertising ethics in Indian advertising being practiced since decades and its subsequent effects on the audience. Keeping in view the communication strategies practiced in visual communication in terms of advertisement, this research paper also finds out the loopholes in the controversial advertisements.
... Interest in attitude towards controversial advertising is mainly generated by the fact that such advertising can be successful in gaining awareness or attention and increasing profits (Dahl, et al., 2003;McIntyre, 2000;Pope, et al., 2004;Waller, 1999b). It is further intensified by the phenomenon that people in any part of the world today have a greater chance of exposure to controversial advertising due to internet and pay television (Waller & Fam, 2000). ...
This study aims to explore the antecedents to attitude about advertising of two controversial products, namely political parties and sexual diseases prevention. The theory of reasoned action was used to provide theoretical basis to exploring beliefs about adverting and explaining attitude. Accordingly, qualitative approach by means of personal interview was adopted, and all interview transcripts were later content-analyzed by multiple coders. The findings show that there are 11 statements of belief about the advertising of political parties and 6 statements about sexual diseases prevention. Even though the advertising of both products are mainly considered as a source of information, their descriptions are very different. While advertising of political parties is chiefly believed to be misleading and for personal gain, advertising of sexual diseases prevention is regarded as a form of education. Thus the former must be carried out with care to prevent potential negative responses, and the latter should be done without exaggeration to achieve its intent. This reinforces the understanding of attitude towards controversial advertising by its type, and beliefs about advertising which might be different and thus create controversy.
Segmentation has been useful in advertising decisions and subsequently the generation approach has emerged as a superior segmentation approach. The purpose of this article is to examine the attitudes of generation X and generation Y towards controversial advertising. Structured questionnaires were distributed throughout Malaysia, and a total of 768 usable questionnaires were obtained. Findings show that the two generational cohorts are significantly different in attitude towards controversial advertising. Generation X found the advertising of female contraceptives, feminine hygiene products, and funeral services to be more controversial, whereas generation Y found the advertising of alcoholic products, condoms, and gambling to be more of a controversy. In terms of the reasons of controversy, generation X found only health and safety issues to be more controversial whereas generation Y, hard sell, nudity, racist images, sexist images, and subject too personal. Future studies are therefore needed to validate the segregation of generations in Malaysia to secure effective marketing strategy.
The advertising of controversial products/services and the use of controversial images to "cut through the clutter" in the marketplace appears to be increasing around the world. However, apart from the general ethical issue regarding the deliberate use of controversial/offensive images for public viewing that may offend some people, it is important to determine what makes a controversial advertisement offensive? A questionnaire was distributed to 1014 students across four different countries in the Asia Pacific region to determine what type of products are seen as offensive and the reasons they are offensive. The results present some important implications for international marketers.
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