Pizza Hut will pull out of a venue that has long been a popular spot for its commercials, hours before the Super Bowl, where it has spent years airing commercials encouraging people to order pies, wings and other items.
Yum Brands restaurant chain will not appear during the ad break during NBC’s pregame show, two people familiar with the matter said. Pizza Hut did not respond to a request for comment. NBC will televise Super Bowl LX, which will feature the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots on February 8th.
Pizza Hut is a mainstay before Super Bowl games and has aired commercials for its menu for at least a decade, according to data from iSpot, which tracks ad spending data. The connection with pregame coverage goes back even further. For example, in 2006, Pizza Hut gained attention for its Super Bowl pregame commercial in which Jessica Simpson and the Muppets’ Miss Piggy fought over the decision to wear the same costume.
The cheese and bread chain aired 12 Super Bowl pregame ads on CBS in 2016 and 20 ads on Fox in 2020, according to iSpot, but has pulled back in recent years. In 2023, Pizza Hut ran 14 ads during Fox’s pregame broadcasts, and in 2024, it ran 10 ads on CBS. Last year, the company ran just seven Super Bowl pregame commercials on Fox, including ads featuring Howie Long, Rob Gronkowski and the NFL’s Ashton Giunty in vignettes the network designed specifically for the day.
A 32-second commercial for early morning pregame shows typically costs between $100,000 and $200,000, with prices increasing closer to the start of an epic soccer game, according to executives familiar with coverage negotiations. NBC is seeking up to $5 million for an ad to air just before kickoff, according to a person familiar with the matter.
There’s probably not a whole lot of mystery surrounding Pizza Plaza’s sudden enthusiasm for the Super Bowl. In November, Yum Brands announced that it had begun a strategic review of Pizza Hut’s operations, with CEO Chris Turner saying, “Additional actions need to be taken to ensure the brand realizes its full value, which could be more effectively executed externally.” Pizza Hut will likely play in Sunday’s Super Bowl, teaming up with Barstool Sports at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., where the big game will be played.
Pizza isn’t what it once was among Americans, said Kevin Shimp, senior director of industry research at restaurant industry consultancy Technomic. “Consumers are shifting more money away from some ‘traditional’ categories like ‘pizza’ and ‘sandwiches’ and are now starting to spend money on chicken, Mexican food and other types of food,” he says.
Pizza continues to sell, but Pizza Hut’s share of the overall market is shrinking, according to data from Technomic. In 2019, Pizza Hut controlled 19.4% of the estimated $28.7 billion spent on pizza chains, according to Technomic. The consulting firm estimates that by 2025, Pizza Hut will control 15.4% of a market worth $33.5 billion. Pizza sales have remained flat in recent years, but one of its rivals, Domino’s Pizza, has managed to increase its share of the total pie market.
Pizza Hut still loves soccer. In early January, the chain announced a new ad campaign featuring football great Tom Brady promoting a new $10 deal on the chain’s 16-inch Big New Yorker pizza. The aim is to get consumers to think of Pizza Hut as the “biggest game of the year.” But it doesn’t necessarily take place during the pregame show leading up to the biggest game of the year.
The company is also branching out into other sports, according to people familiar with some of the company’s plans. Fans of the NCAA’s March Madness college basketball tournament can likely expect to see Pizza Hut commercials related to those games, these officials said. Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery have the rights to the annual event. Pizza Hut has apparently found a new way to cut its advertising pie.
Viewers who tune into NBC’s Super Bowl pregame looking for pizza ads will be disappointed, one person familiar with the matter said. No other pizza advertiser has replaced Pizza Hut in a similar way.
