Pizza Hut to become…The Hut?

The HutMSN Money is reporting how Pizza Hut is going to drop the Pizza from its name. Sort of. Despite earlier reports that the fast food chain was dropping Pizza entirely, only some of the locations will now be branded simply as “The Hut.” This apparently was done in an attempt to alter its image after expanding its menu beyond pizza to include pasta. Well that and an overly apparent attempt to become more hip and youth-friendly in recent months. In April, it introduced the Pizza Hut “Twintern“, a Twitter presence to bring you the latest breaking news in the fast food pizza world. Now they only need to rastify it by about, say, 10 percent.

According to MediaWeek, the new stores will be more than a place to order pizza, they will include televisions that broadcast programs such as “Wheel of Fortune” and “Entertainment Tonight.” You know, cause nothing says “hip hangout” like showing episodes of the Wheel. Vice President of marketing for Pizza Hut, Bob Kraut, stated that, “Hut TV is a way to engage and entertain customers and make those who own our stores feel better about Pizza Hut.” This is just the latest attempt at fast food re-branding, something Yum Brands (parent company of Pizza Hut) already tried with Kentucky Fried Chicken (which became KFC in 1999), and later with KFC’s healthier, grilled chicken offerings KGC, and also evokes memories of stuff like the BK Lounge:

The bigger questions is who will be the new mascot of this franchise…this guy?

jabba the hutt

They definitely could use one after their last mascot ate himself to death:

R.I.P. Pizza the Hut

R.I.P. Pizza the Hutt

And maybe they could join the ‘Hut’ group of franchises like this one:

Communications Hut

Apparently, even in a recession, the company has tons of cash to pay for a redesigned logo, new signage, new employee uniforms/name tags, print new boxes, menus, etc… The list could go on. I don’t see how this is such a great idea, but at the very least, this guy approves:

Mathew Perry Chandler

And really, it isn’t their worst idea ever. Remember, this is the same company that in 1999 put a 30 foot advertisement on the side of a Russian Proton rocket. This because the previous notion of shining lasers onto the moon in order to promote their new logo would cost too much since the projected logo would have to be as big as Texas in order to be seen from Earth.

Pizza Hut rocket