Domino's has fired the latest shot in the pizza wars by disparaging unnamed competitors—OK, clearly Pizza Hut—for overpromising the effect its midweek deals will have on your mundane little life.
"We could tell you that carrying out Domino's on a Monday will bring out the weekend you," says the new spot, from Crispin Porter + Bogusky. That's a not-so-veiled reference to Pizza Hut's recent ads, one of which (also posted below) begins: "Make your weekday feel like a weekend with Pizza Hut's Early Week Deal."
The Domino's ad pushes its own weekday deal—$7.99 for a large, three-topping pizza Monday through Thursday. (The Pizza Hut deal is the same, except only two toppings.) But in keeping with the chain's recent campaign theme of painful honesty, the Domino's ad says promising a weekend feeling from its midweek pizza "would be a lie," adding: "The truth is, pizza alone won't make your weeknight special. It's what you do with it that will."
The ad is amusing, but disingenuous. It closes with a family all laughing together and eating Domino's pizza in their backyard, while watching a movie from an old-time projector on a white canvas staked in the ground. So, Domino's won't bring out the weekend you—but it will bring out the spontaneous, fun-loving, perfect-parent you who suddenly does things, like watching movies in the backyard, that only happen in commercials. That, of course, is as much a fantasy as saying your Tuesday will be like a Friday.
Domino's can pretend to be above the fray, but it's playing the exact same game. And isn't that, in the end, actually more dishonest?