Pizza Hut lures lunchtime queues in Hong Kong

Queues. Humans love them, but Ad Nut would rather face a hungry hawk than stand in line for… well, anything. 

Pizza Hut Hong Kong decided to have some fun with this bizarre human ritual for a bit of April Fool's fun. On April 1, they parked a pop-up resembling a pizza box (pictured below) and handed free pizza slices to hungry diners at five of Hong Kong’s busiest lunch spots that included rival restaurants. More than 500 pizzas were handed to hungry diners trapped in lunchtime queues.

"What are you waiting for?" the pizza box taunted with thinly veiled smugness. Ad Nut imagines rival restaurant managers choking on their artisanal kale salads. Watching your customers abandon ship for a free pizza slice has to sting more than a poorly timed chilli flake. 

“Lunch breaks are always mayhem [in Hong Kong], and for some reason, queues have become an accepted feature of lunch culture. It’s a behaviour no one has ever questioned or made a point of, so it was the perfect opportunity to do something unexpected and get the brand noticed and remembered,” said Amy Cheng, creative director of Edelman.

This pizza-box pop-up will not be a one-time stunt. The brand plans for the pop-up to become an ongoing extension of Pizza Hut stores around the city. 

Ad Nut doesn’t understand the stunt’s relevance to April Fool’s as the stunt itself doesn’t contain jokes or pranks of any kind. If the brand had instead handed out slices topped with brussels sprouts, perhaps it would have been mildly funny. But this really is just a stunt that could have worked any random Tuesday. But Ad Nut supposes that free pizza is still free pizza, and for that, humans will always come running.

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.