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Pizza Hut is an American multinational
restaurant chain A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...
and international
franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...
founded in 1958 in
Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...
by
Dan and Frank Carney Brothers Dan (born 1931) and Frank Carney (April 26, 1938 – December 2, 2020) were American businessmen who founded Pizza Hut, owned by Yum! Brands. Early years Dan and Frank Carney were born into a blended family of twelve children, and ra ...
. They serve their signature
pan pizza Pan pizza is a pizza baked in a deep dish pan or sheet pan. Italian tomato pie, Sicilian pizza, Chicago-style pizza and Detroit-style pizza may be considered forms of pan pizza. Pan pizza also refers to the thick style popularized by Pizza H ...
and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at dine-in,
take-out A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...
and delivery chain locations. They also serve chicken wings on their WingStreet menu. The chain headquartered in
Plano, Texas Plano ( ) is a city in Collin County and Denton County, Texas, United States. It had a population of 285,494 at the 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. History European settlers came to the area near ...
, operates 17,639 restaurants worldwide as of 2020, making it the world's largest pizza chain by number of locations. It is owned by Yum! Brands, Inc., one of the world's largest restaurant companies.


History

Pizza Hut began on May 31, 1958, by two brothers, Dan and Frank Carney, both Wichita State students, as a single location in
Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...
. The now famous little brick building was close to their childhood home and stomping grounds. The Carney brothers grew up in the College Hill neighborhood amongst many life long Wichita families where tree-lined streets were filled with historical homes with a scenic park as their playground. Six months after their launch, later they opened a second outlet and within a year they had six Pizza Hut restaurants. One early employee was future
Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coa ...
head coach
Bill Parcells Duane Charles "Bill" Parcells (born August 22, 1941) is an American former football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons. He rose to prominence as the head coach of the New York Giants from 1983 ...
, who had worked for the company while a college student and football player at Wichita State University. Parcells was considering a franchise for a career (as well as law school) but instead chose to enter coaching, eventually becoming a head coach in the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
. The brothers began franchising in 1959. The iconic Pizza Hut building style was designed in 1963 by Chicago architect George Lindstrom and was implemented in 1969. PepsiCo acquired Pizza Hut in November 1977. Twenty years later, Pizza Hut (alongside
Taco Bell Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, includin ...
and Kentucky Fried Chicken) were spun off by PepsiCo on May 30, 1997, and all three restaurant chains became part of a new company named Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. The company assumed the name of Yum! Brands on May 22, 2002. In August 1994, Pizza Hut and the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) announced , a pilot program in the Santa Cruz area that allowed consumers to use their own computer to order
pizza delivery Pizza delivery is a service in which a pizzeria or pizza chain Delivery (commerce), delivers a pizza to a customer. An order is typically made either by telephone, or over the internet, in which the customer can request pizza type and size, a ...
from a local Pizza Hut restaurant, with connection being made over the Internet to a central Pizza Hut server in
Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...
. The PizzaNet application software was developed by SCO's Professional Services group. PizzaNet was based on the first commercially licensed and bundled Internet operating system, SCO Global Access. Before closing in 2015, the oldest continuously operating Pizza Hut was in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, Kansas, in a shopping and tavern district known as Aggieville near Kansas State University. The first Pizza Hut restaurant east of the Mississippi River was opened in Athens, Ohio, in 1966 by Lawrence Berberick and Gary Meyers. The company announced a rebrand that began on November 19, 2014, in an effort to increase sales, which had dropped in the previous two years. The menu was expanded to introduce various items such as crust flavors and 11 new specialty pizzas. Work uniforms for employees were also refreshed. In 2017, Pizza Hut was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 24 in the list of 200 Most Influential Brands in the World. On June 25 and 27, 2019, it was reported that Pizza Hut was bringing back their logo and the red roof design that was used from 1976 until 1999. On August 7, 2019, Pizza Hut announced its intention to close about 500 of its 7,496 dine-in restaurants in the US, by the middle of 2021. On August 18, 2020, it was announced that Pizza Hut will be closing 300 restaurants after the bankruptcy of NPC International, one of its franchise providers. A company representative stated, "We have continued to work with NPC and its lenders to optimize NPC's Pizza Hut restaurant footprint and strengthen the portfolio for the future, and today's joint agreement to close up to 300 NPC Pizza Hut restaurants is an important step toward a healthier business."


Concept

Pizza Hut is split into several different restaurant formats: the original family-style dine-in locations; storefront delivery and carry-out locations; and hybrid locations that have carry-out, delivery, and dine-in options. Some full-size Pizza Hut locations have a lunch buffet, with "all-you-can-eat" pizza, salad, desserts, and breadsticks, and a pasta bar. Pizza Hut has other business concepts independent of the store type. In 1975, Pizza Hut began testing concepts with Applegate's Landing. These restaurants had exteriors that looked like Colonial Style houses and had eclectic interiors featuring a truck with a salad bar in the bed. The chain offered much of the same Italian-American fare, such as pizza and pasta dishes with some additions like hamburgers and bread pudding. Applegate's Landing went defunct in the mid-1980s except for one location in McPherson, Kansas that closed in fall, 1995. An upscale concept was unveiled in 2004, called "Pizza Hut Italian Bistro". At 50 U.S. locations, the Bistro is similar to a traditional Pizza Hut, except that the menu features new, Italian-themed dishes such as penne pasta, chicken pomodoro, and toasted sandwiches. Instead of black, white, and red, Bistro locations feature a burgundy and tan motif. In some cases, Pizza Hut has replaced a red roof location with the new concept. Pizza Hut Express locations are fast food restaurants that offer a limited menu with many products not seen at a traditional Pizza Hut. These stores are often paired in a colocation with WingStreet in the US and Canada, or other sibling brands such as KFC or
Taco Bell Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, includin ...
and found on college campuses,
food courts A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. ...
, theme parks, bowling alleys, and within stores such as Target. Vintage locations featuring the red roof, designed by architect Richard D. Burke, can be found in the United States and Canada; several exist in the UK, Australia, and Mexico. In his book ''Orange Roofs, Golden Arches'', Phillip Langdon wrote that the Pizza Hut red roof architecture "is something of a strange object – considered outside the realm of significant architecture, yet swiftly reflecting shifts in popular taste and unquestionably making an impact on daily life. These buildings rarely show up in architectural journals, yet they have become some of the most numerous and conspicuous in the United States today." ''Curbed.com'' reports, "Despite Pizza Hut's decision to discontinue the form when they made the shift toward delivery, there were still 6,304 traditional units standing as of 2004, each with the shingled roofs and
trapezoidal A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a convex quadrilateral in Eucli ...
windows signifying equal parts suburban comfort and strip-mall anomie." This building style was common in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The name "red roof" is somewhat anachronistic now since many locations have brown roofs. Dozens of these restaurants have closed or been relocated or rebuilt. Many of the older locations with the red roof design have a beer if not a full bar, music from a
jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to sele ...
, and sometimes an arcade. In the mid-1980s, the company moved into other formats, including delivery or carryout and the fast food "Express" model.


Products

In North America, Pizza Hut has notably sold: * Pan pizza, baked in a pan with a crispy edge; * "Stuffed crust" pizza, with the outermost edge wrapped around a cylinder of mozzarella cheese; * "Hand-tossed", more like traditional pizzeria crusts; * “Thin 'N Crispy”, a thin, crisp dough which was Pizza Hut's original style; * Dippin' Strips pizza, a pizza cut into small strips that can be dipped into a number of sauces; * The P’Zone, a calzone with a marinara dipping sauce that comes in plain, Supremo, Meaty, and pepperoni * The Bigfoot pizza, its largest product * The Priazzo, a pie like pizza stuffed with pizza ingredients The "stuffed-crust" pizza was introduced on March 26, 1995. By the end of the year, it had become one of their most popular lines. Regional differences are seen in the products and bases. The company has localized to Southeast Asia with a baked rice dish called Curry Zazzle. On May 9, 2008, Pizza Hut created "The Natural" pizza, which featured natural ingredients and was sold in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
,
Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
and
Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
. This was discontinued on October 27, 2009, in the Dallas market. Pizza Hut developed a pizza for use as space food, which was delivered to the International Space Station in 2001. It was vacuum-sealed and about 6 in (15 cm) in diameter to fit in the station's oven. It was launched on a Soyuz and eaten by
Yuri Usachov Yury Vladimirovich Usachov (russian: Юрий Владимирович Усачёв; born October 9, 1957) is a former cosmonaut who resides in Star City, Moscow. Usachov is a veteran of four spaceflights, including two long duration missions on b ...
in orbit. In recent years, the chain has seen a downturn in profits. In 2015, the franchise stated it would be pumping more capital into its London branches. Pizza Hut is installing cocktail bars in its London branches as part of a £60 million bid to win back "the Nando's generation". In January 2019, Pizza Hut announced it had expanded beer delivery to 300 locations across the U.S., with plans to expand to 1,000 locations by the summer. In March 2019, Pizza Hut announced the return of the P'Zone after a hiatus of several years. In March 2020, Pizza Hut
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
announced that it had partnered with furniture retailer IKEA on a joint venture. IKEA launched a new side table called SÄVA, which was designed to resemble a pizza saver. The table would be boxed in packaging resembling a
pizza box The pizza box or pizza package is a folding packaging box made of cardboard in which hot pizzas are stored for take-out. The "pizza box" also makes home delivery and takeaway substantially easier. The pizza box has to be highly resistant, c ...
, and the building instructions included a suggestion to order a Swedish meatball pizza from Pizza Hut, which would contain the same meatballs served in IKEA restaurants. A 2021 menu addition, designed to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the introduction of stuffed-crust-pizza, was "nothing but the stuffed crust," a ring of dough filled with cheese.


Advertising


United States

Pizza Hut's first television commercial was produced in 1965 by Bob Walterscheidt for the Harry Crow agency in Wichita, and was entitled "Putt-Putt to the Pizza Hut". The ad looks just like an old movie and is set in fast motion. It features a man in a business suit and tie, played by Ron Williams, who was then a production manager for Wichita's ABC affiliate
KAKE-TV KAKE (channel 10) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and its transmitter is located in ...
, as he starts ordering take-out, leaves his house, and gets into his 1965 Mustang JR by driving to Pizza Hut, where he is chased by a variety of townspeople, portrayed by neighborhood kids, Walterscheidt and his daughter, and various employees for Harry Crow and KAKE-TV. He goes inside Pizza Hut by picking up his pizza and gets back in the 1965 Mustang Jr to return home. They went eating all the pizza except the man who ordered it, which makes the man very upset, as he calls Pizza Hut again. The ad first aired on November 19, 1966, during halftime of the Notre Dame vs. Michigan State "Game of the Century", and dramatically increased sales for the franchise. "Putt-Putt to the Pizza Hut" ran on TV for eight years and was nominated for a Clio Award. Until early 2007, Pizza Hut's main advertising slogan was "Gather 'round the good stuff". From 2008 to 2009, the advertising slogan was "Now You're Eating!". From 2009 to 2012, the advertising slogan was "Your Favorites. Your Pizza Hut" From 2012 to 2016, the advertising slogan was "Make it great", a variation of the 1987–1995 slogan "Makin' it great!". From 1995 to 1999, the slogan was "You'll love the stuff we're made of". The advertising slogan is currently "No one outpizzas the hut". Pizza Hut does not have an official international mascot, but at one time, a series of commercials in the U.S. aired, titled " The Pizza Head Show". These commercials ran from 1991 to 1999 and was created by Walter Williams, creator of the Mr. Bill sketches from ''
Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...
'' in the late 1970s - upon which the ad campaign was based. The ads featured a slice of pizza with a face made out of toppings called "Pizza Head". In the 1970s, Pizza Hut used the signature red roof with a jolly man named "Pizza Hut Pete". Pete was on the bags, cups, balloons, and hand puppets for the kids. In Australia during the mid to late 1990s, the advertising mascot was a delivery boy named Dougie, with boyish good looks, who upon delivering pizza to his father, would hear the catchphrase "Here's a tip: Be good to your mother". Adding to the impact of these advertisements, the role of Dougie was played by famous Australian soap opera and police drama actor Diarmid Heidenreich. Pizza Hut sponsored the film ''
Back to the Future Part II ''Back to the Future Part II'' is a 1989 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by Bob Gale and a story by both. It is the sequel to the 1985 film '' Back to the Future'' and the second installment in the ...
'' (1989) and offered a free pair of futuristic sunglasses, known as "Solar Shades", with the purchase of Pizza Hut pizza. Pizza Hut also engaged in product placement within the film, having a futuristic version of their logo with their trademarked red hut printed on the side of a
mylar BoPET (biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, reflectivity, gas and a ...
dehydrated pizza wrapper in the McFly family dinner scene, and appear on a storefront in Hill Valley in the year 2015. The 1990
NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
game '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game'' came with a coupon for a free pizza. The game included Pizza Hut product placement in the form of background advertisements and pizza that would refill the character's life. In 1995,
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
and his ex-wife
Ivana Trump Ivana Marie Trump (, ; February 20, 1949 – July 14, 2022) was a Czech-American businesswoman, media personality, socialite, fashion designer, author, and model. Ivana lived in Canada in the 1970s before relocating to the United States and m ...
appeared in a commercial. The last scene of the commercial showed Ivana asking for the last slice, to which Donald replied, "Actually, dear, you're only entitled to half", a play on the couple's recent divorce. In 1995, Ringo Starr appeared in a Pizza Hut commercial that teased to a Beatles reunion, but featured three members of
The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was con ...
. A commercial with
Rush Limbaugh Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...
dates from the same year, in which he boasts "nobody is more right than me," yet he states for the first time he will do something wrong, which was to participate in Pizza Hut's then "eating pizza crust first" campaign regarding their stuffed-crust pizzas. In 1999, the announcer says, "The best pizzas under one roof" in the Big New Yorker pizza commercial seen on the PlayStation Pizza Hut Demo Disc 1. Also, in 1999, the game ''
Crazy Taxi ''Crazy Taxi'' is a series of racing video games that was developed by Hitmaker and published by Sega. The first game appeared in arcades in 1999 and was very successful, prompting Sega to port the arcade version to their Dreamcast console ...
'' for Sega Dreamcast featured Pizza Hut as one of the locations to which players were able to drive and drop off customers. However, in the game's 2010 re-release for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, all of the product placement, including the Pizza Hut locations, were removed and replaced with generic locations. Early 2007 had Pizza Hut move into several more interactive ways of marketing to the consumer. Using mobile-phone SMS technology and their MyHut ordering site, they aired several television commercials (commencing just before the Super Bowl) containing hidden words that viewers could type into their phones to receive coupons. Other innovative efforts included their "MySpace Ted" campaign, which took advantage of the popularity of social networking, and the burgeoning user-submission marketing movement via their Vice President of Pizza contest.


United Kingdom

In 1996, as part of Pizza Hut's global advertising strategy using celebrities,
Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
driver
Damon Hill Damon Graham Devereux Hill, (born 17 September 1960) is a British former professional racing driver from England and the 1996 Formula One World Champion. He is the son of Graham Hill, and, along with Nico Rosberg, one of two sons of a Formula ...
and BBC motorsport commentator Murray Walker advertised the stuffed-crust pizza, which parodies Walker's extravagant style. Talk show host Jonathan Ross co-starred in an ad with American model
Caprice Bourret Caprice Bourret (born October 24, 1971) is an American businesswoman, singer, model, actress, and television personality. She lives in London where she runs her company, By Caprice. Early life and education Bourret attended the co-ed Cathol ...
. They advertised the new stuffed-crust pizza, with Jonathan Ross saying "stuffed cwust" due to his rhotacism. Following England's defeat to
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
on penalties in the semifinals of Euro '96, Gareth Southgate, Stuart Pearce, and Chris Waddle featured in an advertisement, which shows Southgate wearing a paper bag over his head in shame as his penalty miss allowed England to lose the shootout. Waddle and Pearce, who both missed in a shootout vs West Germany at World Cup '90, are ridiculing him, emphasizing the word "miss" at every opportunity. After Southgate finishes his pizza, he takes off his paper bag, heads for the door, and bangs his head against the wall. Pearce responds with, "this time he's hit the post".


Russia

In 1997, former Soviet Union leader Gorbachev starred in a Pizza Hut commercial with his granddaughter Anastasia Virganskaya to raise money for the Perestroyka Archives. The ad "obviously exploited the shock value of having a former world leader appear... ndplayed on the fact that Gorbachev was far more popular outside Russia than inside it". It was filmed on a multi-million budget with a cinematic quality, including mounting cameras on the Kremlin and shutting down Red Square to get the establishing shots of the square, and dialogue entirely in Russian with English subtitles, to show Pizza Hut as a global brand compared to its American rivals. In recent years, Pizza Hut has had various celebrity spokespeople, including Jessica Simpson,
the Muppets The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety- sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are the focus of a media franchise that encompasses ...
, and
Damon Hill Damon Graham Devereux Hill, (born 17 September 1960) is a British former professional racing driver from England and the 1996 Formula One World Champion. He is the son of Graham Hill, and, along with Nico Rosberg, one of two sons of a Formula ...
and Murray Walker. Pizza Hut paid for their logo to appear on a Russian
Proton rocket Proton (Russian: Протон) (formal designation: UR-500) is an expendable launch system used for both commercial and Russian government space launches. The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965. Modern versions of the launch system are sti ...
in 2000, which launched the Russian Zvezda module.


Pasta Hut

On April 1, 2008, Pizza Hut in America sent
email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...
s to customers advertising their pasta items. The email (and similar advertising on the company's website) stated: "Pasta so good, we changed our name to Pasta Hut!" The name change was a publicity stunt held on
April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...
, extending through the month of April, with the company's Dallas headquarters changing its exterior logo to Pasta Hut. This name change was also used to promote the new Tuscani Pasta line and the new Pizza Hut dine-in menu. The first Pasta Hut advertisement shows the original Pizza Hut restaurant being imploded and recreated with a "Pasta Hut" sign. A version of this stunt was re-created by Pizza Hut's UK operation later that year in October 2008, which included ten locations in London temporarily taking on new "Pasta Hut" signage. Pizza Hut UK's chief executive at the time has insisted that this was solely intended as a "PR exercise" and the chain never planned on permanently changing its name in the UK or elsewhere.


Sponsorships

* In the early 1990s, as part of PepsiCo's sponsorship of ''
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events. Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the prog ...
'' (and its former moniker, ''The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour''), Pizza Hut was included in the acknowledgment alongside
Taco Bell Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, includin ...
and KFC, which PepsiCo owned at the time. * In 2000, Pizza Hut was a part-time sponsor of Galaxy Motorsports' #75
Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...
in the then NASCAR Cup Series, driven by Wally Dallenbach Jr. * Pizza Hut was the shirt sponsor of English football club
Fulham F.C. Fulham Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, London, which compete in the . They have played home games at Craven Cottage since 1896, other than a two-year period spent at Loftus Road whilst Craven Cottage unde ...
for the 2001–02 season *
Terry Labonte Terrance Lee Labonte (born November 16, 1956), nicknamed Texas Terry or The Iceman, is an American former stock car driver who raced from 1978 to 2014 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup and Sprint Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series). A tw ...
drove selected events with Pizza Hut as the primary sponsor of his #44 car in 2005. * Pizza Hut purchased the
naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...
to Major League Soccer club
FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes as a member of the Western Conference in Major League Soccer (MLS). The franchise began play in 1996 as a charter club of the le ...
' stadium,
Pizza Hut Park Toyota Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium located in Frisco, a suburb of Dallas, Texas, United States. Built and owned by the city of Frisco, the 20,500-seat stadium opened in 2005. Its primary tenants are Major League Soccer club FC Dallas ...
, prior to its opening in 2005, which were allowed to expire in January 2012. * In October 2015, Pizza Hut signed sponsorship deals with the Dallas Mavericks,
Dallas Stars The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and were founded during the 1967 NHL expansion as the Minne ...
, and
American Airlines Center The American Airlines Center (AAC) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the Victory Park neighborhood in downtown Dallas, Texas. The arena serves as the home of the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association and the Dallas ...
. * In February 2018, Pizza Hut signed a sponsorship deal to be the official pizza sponsor for the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
. * Pizza Hut sponsored the #14
Brad Jones Racing Brad Jones Racing is an Australian motor racing team owned by Brad Jones based in Albury. The team competes in the Supercars Championship and the Super2 Series. Recently they have also returned to Australian Formula Ford where Brad and Kim be ...
Holden ZB Commodore driven by
Todd Hazelwood Todd Matthew Hazelwood (born 25 September 1995) is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Repco Supercars Championship. He currently drives the #3 CoolDrive Racing Ford Mustang for Melbourne-based team, Blanchard Racing Team ...
for both of the Darwin Triple Crown and
Townsville 500 The Townsville 500 (formally known as the NTI Townsville 500) is an annual motor racing event for Supercars, held on the Reid Park Street Circuit in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The event has been held since 2009. The event was known as ...
in
2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
. * In March 2022, Pizza Hut signed a sponsorship deal to be the official Quick Service Restaurant for the Supercars Championship.


Book It!

Pizza Hut has sponsored the Book It! reading-incentive program since it started in January 1985. Students who read books according to the goal set by the classroom teacher, in any month from October through March, are rewarded with a Pizza Hut certificate good for a free, one-topping Personal
Pan Pizza Pan pizza is a pizza baked in a deep dish pan or sheet pan. Italian tomato pie, Sicilian pizza, Chicago-style pizza and Detroit-style pizza may be considered forms of pan pizza. Pan pizza also refers to the thick style popularized by Pizza H ...
; and the classroom whose students read the most books is rewarded with a pizza party. Book It! was conceived in 1984 during a dinner with Art Gunther, President of Pizza Hut, and Bud Gates, SVP of Marketing at Pizza Hut, as a way to help Gunther's son read more. The program has been criticized by some psychologists on the grounds it may lead to overjustification and reduce children's intrinsic interest in reading.Flora, S. R., & Flora, D. B. (1999). Effects of extrinsic reinforcement for reading during childhood on reported reading habits of college students. ''Psychological Record'', ''49'', 3–14. Book It! was also criticized by the
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood Fairplay, previously known as Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), is a United States "national coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups, parents, and individuals who care about children nd isthe only nationa ...
in 2007 who described it as "one of corporate America's most insidious school-based brand promotions." A pamphlet produced by the group argued the program promoted junk food to a captive market, made teachers into promoters for Pizza Hut, and undermined parents by making visits to the chain an integral part of bringing up their children to be literate. However, a study of the program found participation in the program neither increased nor decreased reading motivation. The program's 25th anniversary was in 2010. The Book It! program in Australia ceased in 2002.


WingStreet

''WingStreet'' is the name used for Pizza Hut's chicken wing menu. In 2003, Yum! launched WingStreet in combination with existing Pizza Hut franchises. On October 19, 2009, Company president Scott Bergren publicized WingStreet's national launch. The chain predicted aggressive growth, adding more than 4,000 locations by 2010. In 2012, Pizza Hut opened a standalone pilot store in
Denton, Texas Denton is a city in and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, United States. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the 27th-most populous city in Texas, the 197th-most populous city in the United States, and the 12th-most populous ...
. The store was unsuccessful in collecting sales and closed the following year. Restaurants with WingStreet sections on their menus sell breaded and traditional
buffalo wing A Buffalo wing in American cuisine is an unbreaded chicken wing section ( flat or drumette) that is generally deep-fried and then coated or dipped in a sauce consisting of a vinegar-based cayenne pepper hot sauce and melted butter prior to ser ...
s for take-out and delivery. Their sauces include original Buffalo (in mild, medium, and hot levels of spiciness), sweet chili, spicy garlic, honey barbecue, and garlic Parmesan, as well as cajun and lemon pepper dry rubs. They also offer sauce-free "naked" wings.


International

Pizza Hut's international presence under
Yum! Brands Yum! Brands, Inc. (or Yum!), formerly Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., is an American fast food corporation listed on the Fortune 1000. Yum! operates the brands KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill, except in China, where the ...
includes: *Canada and Mexico in North America *Japan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, European Union, Qatar, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Myanmar, and Macau in Asia *Egypt Pizza Hut's China operations are part of the Yum! spinoff
Yum China Yum China Holdings, Inc. () is a Chinese Fortune 500 fast-food restaurant company based in Shanghai, China. With US$9.5 billion in revenue and 10,600 restaurants worldwide it is one of the largest restaurant companies. It was spun off from Yum ...
. Pizza Hut was one of the first American franchises to open in Iraq.


China

In China, Pizza Hut () used an altered business model, offering a fine-dining atmosphere with knives and forks and using an expanded menu catering to Chinese tastes.Chan, Savio and Michael Zakkour. '' China's Super Consumers: What 1 Billion Customers Want and How to Sell it to Them''.
John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, ...
, 2014. Online: p
96
, 9781118834749. – print: p. 162. ("The Great Pizza Wars: In China, Everything Is Possible, but Nothing Is Easy", start p. 96, in Chapter 12: The China Market + The China Global Demographic = China's Super Consumers)
By 2008, Pizza Hut operated restaurants and delivery locations. That year, the company introduced "Pizza Hut Express", opening locations in
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
,
Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...
, and
Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whic ...
. The 160 restaurants were in 40 Chinese cities in 2005. As of 2015, Pizza Hut had 1,903 restaurants in China. Savio S. Chan (陳少宏, Pinyin: ''Chén Shàohóng'') and Michael Zakkour, authors of '' China's Super Consumers: What 1 Billion Customers Want and How to Sell it to Them'', stated middle-class Chinese perceive Pizza Hut as "akin to fine dining", though Pizza Hut was "China's largest and most successful foreign casual-dining chain".


Pakistan

Pizza Hut Pakistan ( ur, ) is the
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
i franchisee of Pizza Hut. It is owned by MCR (Pvt) Ltd and is headquartered in
Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...
,
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
. The first outlet was opened in Karachi in 1993. Currently, Pizza Hut has a presence in 23 major cities.


Russia

Pizza Hut began operating in Russia in 1991, when food supplies dwindled during the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, prompting Russian President
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
to call Pizza Hut deliveries. Pizza Hut suspended operations in response to the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...
.


Mongolia

“Tavan Bogd Foods Pizza” LLC officially opened Pizza Hut on July 14, 2014 in Mongolia. They currently work under three concepts: Restaurant, Delivery, and Express, and provide products and services in 13 areas.


Criticism

In the United Kingdom, Pizza Hut was criticized in October 2007 for the high salt content of its meals, some of which were found to contain more than twice the daily recommended amount of salt for an adult. The toppings that consumers prefer, however, (ham, sausage, bacon, etc.) naturally contain high levels of salt. To meet the Food Standards Agency 2010 target for salt levels in foods, between 2008 and 2010, the company removed over 15% of salt across its menu. In July 2014, delivery drivers in the United States filed a class-action lawsuit over Pizza Hut "paying delivery drivers net wages below minimum wage due to unreimbursed automobile expenses" in violation of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. An attempt by Pizza Hut to have the case dismissed in November 2015 failed. In December 2016, the case, ''Linkovich v. Capital Pizza Huts, Inc., et al.,'' was decided by arbitration, in which Pizza Hut paid damages.


See also

*
List of pizza chains This list of pizza chains includes notable pizzerias and pizza chains. Pizza is a dish of Neapolitan origin and cuisine, made with an oven-baked, flat, generally round bread that is often covered with tomatoes or a tomato-based sauce and mozzarell ...
* List of pizza chains of the United States * List of pizza franchises * List of pizza varieties by country


References


Further reading

*


External links

*
The Original Pizza Hut Museum
at wichita.edu {{authority control 1958 establishments in Kansas 1977 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1958 Buffet restaurants Companies based in Plano, Texas Multinational food companies Pizza chains of the United Kingdom Pizza chains of the United States Pizza franchises Restaurants established in 1958 Yum! Brands Fast-food chains of the United States Fast-food franchises