On Tuesday, California Pizza Kitchen unveiled a head-turning new look.
In a parade of social media posts, the sit-down pizza chain’s mustard-yellow color scheme had been replaced by a searing neon. Its 2-D palm tree logo was now a rotating, hood ornament-like object. The California Pizza Kitchen moniker was pared down to the essentials—CPK—and slapped on a line of streetwear that included a $75 bucket hat. And it had adopted the vocabulary of a terminally online teenager circa 2019.
“See the future, fam,” the brand’s redesigned website read. “We rewrite rules, devour doubters, and serve up nothing but straight heat.”
Across social media, the company formerly known as California Pizza Kitchen proudly proclaimed: “THIS IS THE NEW CPK.”
Except it wasn’t.
The rebrand was fake, part of a new marketing campaign that is intended to both commemorate the chain’s 40th birthday and reintroduce it to consumers who may have forgotten about it.
The ruse was revealed Thursday with the launch of a video starring actress Busy Philipps, a former employee and longtime fan of the brand. In the video, Philipps, confused and dismayed by CPK’s desperate attempt at hipness, swoops in to set things straight.
People don’t come to CPK for loud music and vibes, Philipps explains to Dave, a corporate employee who has clearly drunk the Kool-Aid of the rebrand. “People come to CPK because they love CPK,” she says.
The video, titled “40 and Fine With It,” concludes with Dave and Co. deciding to ditch the theatrics and focus on the food and service California Pizza Kitchen is known for.
Busy Philipps is the face of CPK's fake rebrand campaign. | Photo courtesy of California Pizza Kitchen
The 131-unit chain hopes that the stunt will get CPK back onto customers’ radar, in part by stoking confusion and, yes, even some negativity: Anything to get people talking, said CMO Dawn Keller in an interview.
“This thing is really about rejuvenating the brand with a broader set of consumers that just haven’t been thinking about it lately,” she said.
Initial reactions to the faux rebrand were mixed, she said, and differed depending on the platform. The response on LinkedIn was largely positive, with CPK’s professional network praising the “fresh” and “modern” look. Elsewhere, some fans were excited about the merch sporting the new logo, even though it was not actually for sale.
But in other corners of the internet, the rebrand was getting trashed.
“This looks like you ChatGPT’d your way to a new brand,” one user commented. “First brand to prank itself for April Fool’s day,” said another.
“In total, it’s confusion,” Keller said. “And above all, it’s conversation.”
That was the ultimate goal for California Pizza Kitchen, which has been through a difficult stretch over the past decade. Since 2013, both sales and unit count have declined by about a third, including a 10% sales decline in 2023, according to Technomic data.
But the brand is working to bounce back. Late last year, it began franchising in the U.S. for the first time in a bid to return to growth. And CEO Jeff Warne has encouraged Keller and new President Michael Beacham to push the envelope.
“Jeff gave us … freedom and empowerment to take calculated risks and to shake things up,” said Keller, who has been with Costa Mesa, California-based CPK for about a year.
The fake rebrand strategy certainly carries some risk. There’s a chance people react negatively to the initial launch without ever finding out that it was fake. There’s also a chance people actually like the fabricated brand.
Keller said CPK and its creative agency wanted the makeover to feel over the top and a bit outdated, but not so much so that people would dismiss it out of hand. “Believable enough can get people to talk,” she said. The team used the chain’s 40th birthday as a hook to set up the mid-life crisis.
And while it broadcast the new look far and wide earlier this week, CPK invested even more heavily in the second part of the campaign involving Philipps to ensure that customers see the full message.
Philipps, who is known for her roles in "Freaks and Geeks" and "White Chicks," also has a large social media following to help spread the word.
Though the rebrand is not real, CPK will still use this moment as an opportunity to refresh itself, but in more subtle ways.
“You will see us with a different level of personality, a little bit of edge, a little bit of spice,” Keller said. “But at the core it’s really gonna be about how we show up and making sure that we’re doubling down on the ideas of the brand and the pillars of the brand,” such as the menu innovation that has produced unique menu items like barbecue chicken pizza.
While the bait-and-switch is largely aimed at lapsed customers, California Pizza Kitchen is doing some things to celebrate with its loyal fans too. It is bringing back four fan-favorite menu items for a limited time, based on voting from employees, customers and company officials. They include rosemary roasted potato and grilled chicken pizza (chosen by the chain’s founders), tortilla spring rolls (the customer pick) and Waldorf chicken salad (employees’ choice).
It is also raising the stakes for its popular Thank You Card program, which gives every customer a card featuring a surprise gift such as a discount, gift card or cash. The grand prize this year is $40,000 in honor of CPK’s 40th anniversary.
The program typically drives repeat visits because customers have to return to the restaurant to have their prize revealed by a manager.
Keller, who has worked in marketing for more than 20 years with brands including Caribou, Staples and Krispy Kreme, said she has never been part of a campaign quite like this.
“I’ve been involved in other projects that maybe have resemblance to pieces of this, but to bring it all together in this way, it’s certainly a first for CPK,” she said.
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