Hell Pizza

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Hell Pizza is a New Zealand-based pizza chain. Hell first began in early 1996 next to Victoria University, and since then has gained a huge following in Wellington. After a little creative advertising, the name Hell started to gain a reputation.

Hell is owned by Warren Powell, Callum Davies and Stuart McMullin although speculation that Burger King are to purchase the company arose in September 2006.^[1] There are currently 66 stores nationwide. As of the end of 2005, it has branches throughout New Zealand, and has plans for expansion into Australia. Recently they expanded into the United Kingdom. They own the name Hell worldwide under food and beverage retail.

Their menu has religiously inspired names. For instance:

Seven of the pizzas are named after the seven deadly sins.
The dessert and drinks sections on their menu are named ambrosia and nectar respectively.
The large pizza boxes have a cut-out of a coffin "for your remains."
The anti-litter message on the box says to "dispose of the evidence."
The phone number (0800 666 111) carries the message "go to hell (666) for an emergency (111)."
You have to collect tokens from 13 (the number of people present at the Last Supper) boxes of the same size to get a free pizza.

It is notable for its humorous advertising, focus on quality, and being the first company in New Zealand to offer online pizza ordering. Their logo, and their pizzas, are used on the Sporting Hell segment on the television show Pulp Sport.

[edit] Condom advertising

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On 31 October 2006 Hell announced through a press release it would be promoting its "Lust" pizza by distributing 170,000 branded condoms. They said that "while the primary aim of the campaign is to promote our LUST pizza, let's not forget that promoting the use of condoms has important public benefits such as sexual education, the prevention of pregnancy and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections".^[2]

Within days, groups such as Family Life International, Focus on the Family and the Catholic Church had lodged complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority. The Family First Lobby said Hell has "crossed the line of what is decent and acceptable advertising material to be put in letterboxes of families".^[3] In addition there were complaints that the packaging contained "explicit instructions"^[4], though these are the typical instructions that come with condoms.