Was the Lord working some kind of miracle when Pizza Hut's billboards all over Atlanta amazingly got turned into media shrines for the followers of Jesus?
"I didn't know before [the Jesus stories started] that Pizza Hut sold spaghetti," claimed one Atlantan, who has drawn to the billboards. Even if she went away without seeing a religious vision, she still had a vision of Pizza Hut value.Pizza Hut lunch patrons get one of four choices at the $1.29 price point: a Pepperoni Personal Pan Pizza, a bowl of spaghetti with meat sauce, a ham and cheese sandwich, and a single trip through the salad bar.And Pizza Hut is serving four slightly upscale lunch items for a slightly higher price: $1.79. They include a Supreme Personal Pan Pizza, spaghetti and meat balls, a Supreme sandwich, and an all-you-can-eat-salad.Admittedly, some profound miracles of marketing have been visited onthis city, which is called the Sunbelt's capital. Could Pizza Hut's spaghetti Jesus be another one of them?Koh said he is expected to serve as president "until later this year" after the corporation has spent some time "evaluating its options." He noted that Shakey's is not expected to begin searching for a permanent successor until those options are reviewed but he would not elaborate on the options.Even though the stories talk more about Jesus than they do about the successful lunch promotion -- which has been running since March -- Pizza Hut is getting miles and miles of valuable free lineage, he admitted."I can tell you without reservation we had nothing at all to do with it," said Pizza Hut's marketing director for the state of Georgia, Brian Hunt, when a reporter wondered out loud how much additional advertising mileage his value lunch campagin had gotten since an Atlanta woman told local newspapers she had seen Jesus on one of the company's $1.29 Spaghetti Junction" billboards."I'm not so sure we're that smart," Hunt joked.Hunt surmises that the Jesus image -- which he calls an abstraction -- showed up in the billboard enlargement somehow during the final stages of production.At the same time some people are claiming that the face in the spaghetti is not that of Jesus, but such performers as Willie Nelson, John Lennon and Jim Morrison."The coverage has been overwhelming," Hunt said. "But during that first week [of the vision controversy]) I was climbing the walls. The telephone wouldn't stop ringing."The Pizza Hut lunch blitz in Atlanta is a two-tiered event being featured at all of the original-style sit-down units and also at the new take-away and dine-in stores. According to Hunt, there are 90 traditional "red roofs" in the metropolitan market.Indeed, the big Jesus story could be a miracle for Pizza Hut. Features on Pizza Hut's billboards -- appearing much farther and wider than the vision itself -- have shown up on national television and even in The New York Times."The lunch promo is doing very well," Hunt claimed. "The story is you can get a lot more than pizza at Pizza Hut."Stone, 54, died last month of an apparent heart attack.The average person who looks at one of the billboards, according to Hunt, "needs a whole lot of help finding Jesus." In fact, news reporters are finding two kinds of Atlantans lately: those who see Jesus and those who don't."In the original photography there's nothing but spaghetti on a fork," he insisted. "That's something I can tell you beyond any doubt."About 95 percent of Pizza Hut's franchisees offer Pepsico's soft-drink brands, but there is "nothing that requires them to do so," a Pizza Hut spokesman explained."Apparently the mor ecreative and abstract a person you are, the easier He is to find," Hunt reasoned.Koh, 47, will retain his duties as chief financial officer for the 200-unit pizza chain. He joined Shakey's shortly after Singapore-based Inno-Pacific Holdings acquired it in 1989.
"I'm not so sure we're that smart," Hunt joked.
Author: Jack Hayes
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