Pizza Hut to launch new logo in space ship

Rawlings won’t say how much the logo launch is costingDallas-based Pizza Hut. A spokesman for the chain’s parent, Tricon Global Restaurants Inc., says the price will be about half that of a 30-second spot on the upcoming Super Bowl, which now runs between $1.9 million and $2.5 million.

The notion of painting its new logo on a spaceship came to Pizza Hut after its marketing gurus’ first idea flamed out. Initially, they wanted to project the chain’s updated logo onto the moon. For a while, those in the know hummed, "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie . . . " as they called on physicists, astronomers and others to see if it was doable.

A team led by Jonathan Blum, a Tricon senior vice president, spent weeks learning "how to make this happen." They called on representatives at the Naval Observatory in Washington, satellite experts at Hughes Space and Communications International, the Federal Aviation Administration and scientists at the Hayden Planetarium in New York, among others. Nixing the Notion The idea, they soon learned, wouldn’t work.First, the necessary laser technology won’t be available for years, satellite builders said. Even if it were, the logo would have to be as big as Texas to be seen by earthlings without telescopes. Aviation experts had another compelling reason to nix the notion: The light beam might blind pilots and interfere with planes’ navigation instruments.

The pizza chain then contacted two firms that have worked with the Russian space program before, Space Marketing Inc., of Roswell, Ga., and Entertainment Marketing Communications International Ltd., Stamford, Conn. Executives there suggested the rocket logo.

Until now, space marketing has been limited in frequency and success. Three years ago, PepsiCo Inc. paid $5 million to have cosmonauts float a four-foot aluminum-and-nylon replica of a Pepsi can outside the Mir orbital station for a TV commercial. Mir also flogged Omega watches and milk for an Israeli dairy. A Hollywood studio once had the Russians paint a giant likeness of Arnold Schwarzenegger on a rocket –although the stunt misfired when the launch was delayed until well after the film opened. And in 1990, a Japanese television reporter rode a Soyuz rocket bearing logos of toothpaste and diaper makers.

But when Space Marketing suggested floating mile-long inflatable signs in low orbit over Atlanta’s Olympic Games, some in Congress quickly drafted legislation to prevent it.