What’s super cheesy, about 20 minutes long and has racked up nearly 7 million YouTube views?
“Pretzel Crust Island,” of course.
The four-episode riff on “Survivor”-esque reality TV shows that debuted last week comes from an unlikely source: Little Caesars Pizza and creative partner McKinney.
The delightfully chaotic bit of programming is designed to promote the return of the pizza chain’s Pretzel Crust Pizza and new offering of Stuffed Pretzel Crust Pizza, with four “contestants” vying for a coveted pie.
For an added twist, the episodes are reportedly inspired by real social media posts from Pretzel Crust fans who claimed they’d do outrageous things like declare bankruptcy for one slice or skydive dressed as a pretzel.
“We took your crazy fan comments and turned them into a legit reality show,” Little Caesars posted on Facebook last week. “It gets wild on Pretzel Crust Island.”
The series is hosted by Flula Borg, known for his popular YouTube channel, as well as appearances in movies such as “Pitch Perfect 2.”
Nearly two million people have watched the “Pretzel Crust Island” finale, in which the pizza winner is finally revealed. We’d tell you the winner, but that would ruin the fun, wouldn’t it?
To make the campaign more interactive, each episode contains a hidden message that’s part of a longer phrase.
“DM us the complete phrase to prove how much you love Pretzel Crust,” Little Caesars posted on Instagram.
The whole thing has the mildly unhinged vibe of a pretty spot-on parody of golden-age “Survivor.” (That show, by the way, first aired in 2000, which was 25 years ago in case you are bad at math.)
In any case, getting 7 million people to watch what is essentially a 20-minute, three-part ad for a returning limited-time product is no small feat.
Little Caesars is not the first restaurant chain to have some fun with a televised nugget of pop culture.
Casual-dining chain Chili’s (which is having … a moment right now) earlier this year dropped a 15-minute “movie” on Lifetime called “I’ll be Home for National Margarita Day.”
The cinematic effort, featuring Maria Menounos and Taye Diggs, hits on all of the holiday rom-com tropes, with a big-city developer threatening a town’s holiday tradition, forcing two exes to band together to stop him. Chili’s, of course, plays a starring role.
“We call these ‘culture talks,’” Chili’s CMO George Felix said a couple of weeks ago at Restaurant Leadership Conference in Phoenix. “There are meant to be things that are not big, huge TV spends or anything. They’re meant to be buzzy. They’re meant to drive buzz for our brand. They’re meant to drive earned coverage. And they’re really just meant to keep Chili’s top of mind in between those spikes when we are doing bigger media stuff.”
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