Pizza Hut’s new TV commercial lampooning Hillary Clinton as a carpetbagger has left the first lady with a bad taste in her mouth. Billed by the media as the first ’campaign’ ad in the New York senate race, the new commercial features a blonde woman with a Southern accent, pitching the ’cheesy’ virtues of the Big New Yorker pizza.
Pizza Hut’s new TV commercial lampooning Hillary Clinton as a
carpetbagger has left the first lady with a bad taste in her mouth.
Billed by the media as the first ’campaign’ ad in the New York senate
race, the new commercial features a blonde woman with a Southern accent,
pitching the ’cheesy’ virtues of the Big New Yorker pizza.
The ad appeared straightforward until the New York Daily News and New
York 1 - the city’s all-news cable channel - reported that Pizza Hut and
its parent corporation, Tricon Global, have ties to Hillary’s almost
certain electoral opponent, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (October
22). CARMA’s examination of the ensuing media coverage surrounding the
Pizza Hut ad revealed that, although the commercial’s impact on the
election may be minimal, it might signal the beginning of a new trend of
political campaigning.
Vocal Democratic supporters immediately labeled the spot a case of
political favoritism disguised as a pizza ad. Jim Jordan of the
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee remarked, ’the commercial is
unambiguously derisive and nasty ... it was clearly designed to boost
the Giuliani campaign’ (Dallas Morning News, October 23). Political
strategist James Carville ordered White House employees not to order
from Pizza Hut anymore, adding ’giving up Pizza Hut is the culinary
equivalent of giving up Brussels sprouts for Lent’ (Washington Post,
October 26).
Pizza Hut officials were put on the defensive and played down the ad as
merely a ’spoof.’ Tricon senior VP Jonathan Blum advised Democrats to
lighten up, saying the campaign was planned in fun: ’This is all about
pizza, not politics’ (New York Daily News, October 22). However the
Boston Globe (October 23) accused the company of ’unashamedly play(ing)
up the politics’ by pointing out that the news release headlining the
commercial was titled ’Who Will Be the Next US Senator from New
York?’
Clinton’s opponents naturally saw the more humorous side of the ad. ’The
Pizza Hut commercial clearly plays on the most common criticism against
her - that she’s a carpetbagger who has never lived in New York,’
claimed reporter Fred Kaplan (The Hotline, October 25). Steven Law,
director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, noted that the
ad was part of a 10-month-old promotion that has featured commercial
cameos by New Yorkers Donald Trump, Fran Drescher and Spike Lee.
Media analysts, such as Scott Donaton from Advertising Age, said the
commercial was already a success before it had been aired, since it was
sufficiently provocative to generate tons of free publicity. And NBC’s
Today show (October 25) called the ad a ’two-fer’ - an attack pizza
ad.
Political experts agreed that the commercial would not sway enough
voters to affect the Senate race. For one thing, they noted, the
election is a year away and already the race is too polarized. And
although political purists may object to Pizza Hut’s tactics, there is
nothing in the election laws to stop this from happening again. The
Pizza Hut ad seemingly has left the door open for endless possibilities
of commercials selling products and harming politicians at the same
time.
- Evaluation and analysis by CARMA International. Media Watch can be
found at www.carma.com.
