Monday, January 11, 2010

DEAR AMERICA, WE SWEAR OUR PIZZA DOESN'T SUCK ANYMORE: There are a lot of ways to evaluate the new Domino's "pizza turnaround" campaign, but how's this -- what message does "we're sorry we were serving you ketchup on top of cardboard all these years" convey to the people who were loyal to the brand before?

In related news, as good as our neighbors at Pizzeria Stella are, we hit Tacconelli's in Moorestown last night, and it may be better. Excellent charring on the thin crust, and our white pie with shrimp and sausage was transcendent.

added: Slate's Seth Stevenson:
Of course it seems risky for a brand to go negative on itself. But imagine if Domino's had spent two years and tens of millions of dollars reformulating its pizza (which it did), and then launched the revamped pie with a simple "new and improved" spot. A "We took our great pizza and made it even yummier!" kind of ad. Would anyone notice? Would anyone talk or tweet about the fact that the Domino's recipe had been altered? "Google the words new and improved," says Domino's chief marketing officer Russell Weiner, "and I think you'll get about 160 million hits. They're two of the more overused words in marketing. They've become wallpaper."