Hiring C-list celebrity spokespeople has worked for Boston Pizza for the past decade. In the mid-90s, the now defunct ad agency Lanyon Phillips featured Cheers star John Ratzenberger in commercials. In 2002, TBWAVancouver took over and began using Howie Mandel, and the tag line, “You’re among friends.”
Last year, Mandel became host of TV’s Deal or No Deal, Boston Pizza hired DDB, and from then on the campaigns lost their way. Boston Pizza called an agency review in early September.
DDB ditched the celebrities and at first went after the restaurant chain’s two demographic segments: families and the twentysomething bar crowd. “Fatal Flirt” turned off families, while “Pet Store,” which showed a family with freakishly large hands to demonstrate the size of the ribs, likely turned off everyone else. Boston Pizza quickly pulled the ad after people complained it made fun of people with deformed hands.
In March, DDB introduced a new spokesperson: Louie Sasquatch, the restaurant chain’s newest busboy. But, Joanne Forrester, vice-president of marketing says he missed the mark.
“The idea sounded interesting on paper, but people just really didn’t understand the connection,” she says. “Having a hairy object in a restaurant did not seem to be such a good idea. Franchisees didn’t care for the spot and the overall message around ‘you’re among friends’ was lost.”
Some in the ad industry agree. One creative director, who prefers to remain nameless, says the company forgot what the brand is. Recent advertising ignored what made the restaurant a success, he says. “Boston Pizza is the focal point of a lot of communities, it’s a village pub and I think it went for whimsy and irreverence when it should have gone back to the core experience, which is having fun.”
David Walker, a partner at Saint Bernadine Mission Communications in Vancouver says: “Huh? Where’s the Kokanee Ranger dude?” (Kokanee Beer uses a Sasquatch in its ads.) Walker acknowledges that while it’s a tough assignment working for a franchised organization, the campaigns just weren’t that interesting. “They didn’t make me think ‘what a cool place’ and they didn’t make me think ‘that looks delicious’.”
Boston Pizza has short-listed five agencies and will make a decision in November, says Grant Stockwell, the chain’s new director of marketing. He adds the company is open to looking at star power again as well as changing the tag line. “It certainly comes out as a solid positioning for the brand, but we aren’t making it something that the agencies have to keep.”
