Domino's Turns A Loss In A Lawsuit It Wasn't Involved In Into A TV Commercial

from the wow dept

People have been discussing, lately, how Domino's new advertising campaign is certainly on the gutsy side. Basically, the company started running commercials that admitted pretty clearly what anyone who's ever eaten at Domino's has known for years: its pizzas were dreadful. The new commercials effectively admitted this in touting a brand new recipe that they insist is much, much better, and saying that customers hated the old pizza (in slightly different words). It seems the ad campaign continues to break new grounds, as well, as the latest ad actually uses a lawsuit between two competitors as the key point to bash Papa Johns -- even though the Papa Johns won that lawsuit. Found via Rebecca Tushnet, the ad itself mocks Papa Johns for "puffery" in its advertising slogan of "Better ingredients. Better pizza." Watch it below: The actual lawsuit had nothing at all to do with Domino's, though you wouldn't know that from the commercial. It actually involved Pizza Hut suing Papa Johns over the slogan, as Pizza Hut argued that Papa Johns was implying its ingredients and pizzas were worse than Papa Johns. While Pizza Hut won at the lower level, an appeals court reversed and the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal, so Papa Johns could use the slogan again. Domino's, again, had no part in the lawsuit, but is apparently mocking Papa Johns in its commercials for claiming in court that such a slogan involves "puffery" and wasn't meant to indicate that it's pizzas were better than a specific competitor's.

You have to hand it to Domino's ad team, though, for taking a lawsuit that didn't even involve itself, and then creating a TV ad about it, which doesn't even mention how the competitor they're mocking won that lawsuit. That's bold.

Filed Under: advertising, lawsuits, pizza, puffery
Companies: dominos, papa johns, pizza hut