Pizza Hut has officially taken the reins as the new pizza sponsor of the NFL, replacing Papa John’s.
The pizza chain rolled out its new marketing campaign on Tuesday as the company said that it has inked a multiyear deal to be the football league’s official pizza sponsor. The move comes only a day after Papa John’s said that it was no longer a sponsor of the NFL.
“The NFL has the ability like no other league in the world to inspire, excite, and unite people who otherwise may have nothing in common,” Marianne Radley, Pizza Hut’s chief brand officer said. “They have over 70 million fans in the US.”
Pizza Hut said that it plans on changing the game by offering a new rewards program that is NFL-centric, as well as NFL-themed pizza boxes to get people into the football spirit. The first Pizza Hut-NFL television campaign includes Pittsburgh Steelers players Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Pizza Hut is looking to avoid some of the mistakes that Papa John’s made, including doing its best to avoid discussing whether or not it supports players’ decision to kneel during the national anthem as a protest on police brutality.
Papa John’s got in trouble when founder and former CEO John Schnatter used the N-word during a company conference call.