Look carefully on the top left. Pizza Hut has changed it's name to Pasta Hut.
No joke of a lie. Pizza Hut is now Pasta Hut.
Go to the website and watch the cheesiest flash video (again top left) of two workmen replacing the neon Pizza with a neon Pasta. Unbelievable.
And here's a picture of a new Pasta Hut restaurant from the Daily Telegraph. I was starting to wonder why they keep saying, "these are strange times" on the news...
Dominos rock.
Posted by: claire | Oct 08, 2008 at 15:21
It's bugging the bloody life out of me that they've MISSED THE DAMN APOSTROPHE out of what should be "PASTA'S SO GOOD" (it's short for 'pasta IS so good' people...it's not difficult...)
Jeez...
Anyway their pizzas were rubbish; I have always preferred Pizza Express which is 100 times better. If they ever change to Pasta Express we'll be having serious words, I tell you ;-)
Posted by: minxlj | Oct 08, 2008 at 15:34
Um, I believe that the S is to pluralize 'pasta', not to abbreviate 'is'...
Posted by: nmc | Oct 08, 2008 at 16:04
I kinda like it. Might get some free publicity if someone actually bites it.
Posted by: Bruno | Oct 08, 2008 at 17:04
It was the start of the end of Pizzaland when they started opening then rebranding to Bella Pasta.
Posted by: Chris H | Oct 08, 2008 at 17:16
This is bugging the hell out of me. I think it's all hype and clearly a very clever ad campaign to get us all talking about the fact that they have pasta dishes on their menu.
http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/pizza-hut-changing-to-pasta-hut-real-or-hoax-marketing/
Posted by: AK | Oct 08, 2008 at 17:18
My god, they even have a voting open, also a "make it viral please" button!
It's working, people are buying it.
(now I read the Financial Times and am about to eat my pasta-words. Not yet, though)
Posted by: Bruno | Oct 08, 2008 at 17:33
AK -you might have a point. It's so ridiculous it could be true. It's interesting that the poll is 87% against the new name.
nmc - That's an interesting point of view. Mike? Tom of the Rovers?
Posted by: Ben | Oct 08, 2008 at 19:56
OK, read the T's and C's: http://www.pastahut.co.uk/Terms
That would seem to confirm that it's a joke. Or a viral.
I'll concede that this is pretty good, based on the fact that it had me fooled ;)
Posted by: Ben | Oct 08, 2008 at 20:03
I was bewildered at first.
"Yes sir we changed our name to PastaHut so people would know we also sell Pasta."
"But do you also serve Pizza?
"Why of course we do"
"Then why not keep with Pizza Hut"
"Because we also serve Pasta"
Its like a comedy skecth.
However dig behind and you will see its a a PR stunt done by Freud PR.
Crafty little beggers
Posted by: Jamie | Oct 09, 2008 at 17:49
I wonder if the pasta is as greasy and disgusting as the pizza. They would be better off to rebrand as Diarrhea Hut.
Posted by: Justin | Oct 09, 2008 at 18:22
Pizza Hut® Participates in April First Foolery
Introduces Pasta. Keeps Pizza Hut Name.
Dallas, TX (April 1, 2008) – Pizza Hut® President and CEO Scott Bergren issued the following statement today regarding the company’s participation in April Fools Day:
“This year, marks our 50th anniversary as Pizza Hut. For the past 50 years Pizza Hut has been known as a fun-loving company with a history of firsts including becoming the first global pizza chain, the first chain to offer text and mobile ordering from a cell phone and even the first to send our logo to space. But in all this time we’ve never participated in an April Fools Day joke.
This year, we’re the first national chain to deliver restaurant-quality pastas right to customers’ doors with the introduction of our new Tuscani Pastas. We figured what better time than now for some light-hearted fun.
While we will not be making a permanent name change to Pasta Hut, we are very serious about making pasta a significant part of our business moving forward, and the notion of the name change was a direct result of feedback from our customers who told us our new Tuscani Pastas were so good we should change our name.
The launch of Tuscani Pastas marks a new day for Pizza Hut, and what better way to grab people’s attention than with some tomfoolery. We committed a tremendous amount of resources to our Pasta Hut hijinx, including new signage on our corporate headquarters, a national ad campaign and a re-branding of our Web site. We believe these efforts show our true level of excitement about these new pasta offerings from Pizza Hut.”
Posted by: Frank | Oct 11, 2008 at 16:17
We committed a tremendous amount of resources to our Pasta Hut hijinx, including new signage on our corporate headquarters, a national ad campaign and a re-branding of our Web site. We believe these efforts show our true level of excitement about these new pasta offerings from Pizza Hut.”
Posted by: chanel flap | Nov 01, 2010 at 07:27