Say what you want about Peyton Manning, but the fact that he owns a bunch of Papa John’s stores in Denver sure has helped the stoner jokes write themselves. This latest creation seems like the result of brand synergy and whatever your “urban philosopher” friend, Professor Munchies, had left on his coffee table at 3 am on a Monday after a 48-hour Xbox binge, but I guarantee there are people out there who are going to eat the hell out of it. Papa John’s and PepsiCo have teamed up to finally answer that nagging question – What would happen if you took a bag of Fritos and a bowl of chili, and dumped them on top of your pizza? It’s the Fritos Chili Pizza.
According to Bob Kraut, Papa John’s Chief Marketing Officer, though, this is less about reminding me of that time in college that I had three things in my pantry and managed to turn them into a week’s worth of meals, and more about celebrating our favorite part of the fall season.
“It seemed like a no-brainer to collaborate with our beverage partner, PepsiCo, to bring its popular Fritos corn chips snack to our pizza and combine these traditional tailgating fall favorites — chili, cheese and added crunch — with Papa John’s signature fresh-dough crust,” Bob Kraut, Papa John’s chief marketing officer, said in the release. (Via Louisville Business First)
Honestly, he could have just said, “Look, we have a deal with Pepsi and people love Fritos and chili, so what the hell, right?” but the man gets extra points for his application of Jack Donaghy’s best business lessons. So I guess the only question remaining is – Do I eat this thing or what? I think I should give it a whirl. Or maybe I’ll order one and then make my own and compare. There are a million ways I could go with this, but the promotion ends on Nov. 23, so I need to decided ASAP.
For comparison, the above commercial shows what Papa John’s wants the pizza to look like when it arrives in our homes, and this next video (via Eater) is one man’s review of the Fritos Chili Pizza. YouTube user “SummertimeKen” declares, “That’s pretty good. I highly recommend.” For those of you who are culinary experts like myself or SummertimeKen, that means it’s pretty good and he highly recommends it.