A New Zealand Pizza chain called Hell Pizza has come under fire for its “grotesque” adverts, which depict three dead celebrities dancing on graves for its Halloween promotion.
Distinctly provocative, Hell Pizza had to withdraw its advert, which featured skeletal animations of Sir Edmund Hillary and Heath Ledger, who both died in January, and the Queen Mother dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
The family of Sir Hillary, the first man to climb Everest, said that Hell’s advert was in “extremely poor taste” with Hillary’s son Peter describing it as “disturbing”. The firm has since apologised, adding that “the idea of Sir Edmund being there was intended to be a light-hearted remembrance and not meant to cause offence.”
The company has an infamous past. In 2007, controversy erupted over an ad featuring Hitler holding a Hell pizza in his hand in a Nazi salute. Other previous campaigns include distributing free condoms with their “Lust” pizza, with the innuendo loaded slogan of “Lust: Our pizza for meat lovers!” which lead to uproar from Catholic groups.
The New Zealand brand’s website adopts a light-hearted, pseudo-Satanic style, with pizzas named after the Seven Deadly Sins (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride) and by using slogans such as “Sell Your Soul For Pizza.”
Hell Pizza’s marketing director, Rachael Allison defended the company, saying that this latest animation was part of an email campaign that targeted existing customers and that Hell Pizza is known and loved by customers for its controversial adverts.
