Pizza Hut Follows Popeyes’ Lead to Cash in on Social Media Whimsy
TikTok sensation Anna Sitar is stoking the popularity of “Girl Math” to boost the profile of Pizza Hut’s $7 Deal Lover’s special, as reported by Ad Age. Diners who jump through a few online hoops may order two or more of 17 dishes for $7 each in the promotion by Pizza Hut. According to TikTok’s Girl Math, a label for the way women rationalize their spending, the deal is virtually a freebie… or so the promotion goes.
Sitar will use her 12-million-follower TikTok megaphone to publicize the promotion, Ad Age said. “It takes two to make each $7? Girl Math,” Sitar states in a video. “Ordering in means not doing the dishes tonight, saving time. Time is money. Girl Math.” (Girl Math probably doesn’t compute for Sitar in real life, though – she holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering plus a master’s in film and TV production, Ad Age said.) TikTok’s #girlmath hashtag has over 1 billion views, fertile territory for marketers.
Examples of Girl Math
To explain via varied examples, Girl Math means that items purchased using refunds on store gift cards are free. A Forbes article notes this example: A $300 purse used every day for a year is “going to cost less than $1 a day, which is basically free.” A Washington Post personal-finance writer offers these two trains of Girl Math thought: If a friend repays you for their portion of a dinner after you put the meal on your credit card, the cash is basically free money. If you don’t buy something when it’s on sale, you’re losing money.
A report on the Fox television affiliate in Atlanta cites more examples: “Anything under $5 is practically free” (yet a $5-a-day coffee habit totals $1,825 for one year). Buying= tickets to a concert, ballgame or other event in advance makes it free the day off because you bought the tickets long ago. Another: “Botox clearly counts as an investment in my future self. Boutique gym classes are also an investment because $45 to get yelled at for an hour is actually less than $200 of therapy, and I can’t do that every day.”
How to Seal a Deal
The Girl Math social media campaign aims to help Pizza Hut capture user data this way: Consumers complete a form at www.hutmath.com, supplying their names and email addresses. In addition, they must tell why Pizza Hut’s $7 Deal Lover’s menu is basically free using Girl Math by keying in their answers on the website or by supplying a link to their original TikTok videos that reveal their explanations. In return, they get a gift card code entitling them to the deal.
Pizza Hut isn’t putting all its eggs with Sitar’s Girl Math, however. The brand also is partnering with Ego Nwodim of Saturday Night Live on new TV commercials featuring her happily munching a Hut pizza during a rooftop party. The ads will air nationwide on television as well as in internet videos and social media, according to Ad Age.
Pizza Hut Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Morgan told Ad Age that the two-pronged approach is designed to cast a wide net. “We wanted to talk to a new audience,” Morgan said, “having two different stars working two different channels. … The hope is that we’ll bring them in for a purchase and keep them coming back again and again and into our loyalty program.”
First Came Popeyes…
Before Pizza Hut hired Sitar, Fast-food brand Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen dived in to the TikTok girl trend with its online-only (pickup or delivery) Popeyes’ Girl Dinner of mashed potatoes, gravy, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, Cajun fries and two biscuits. (Costing $5, it also fits the definition of Girl Math.) NBC’s Today show defines “Girl Dinner” as food with “no cooking, no cleanup, only indulgence.”
Jeff Klein, chief marketing officer for Popeyes, knew Girl Dinner would be a hit for his brand. “It felt like the perfect opportunity to jump in and share our take on it,” Klein said. “Popeyes has long been known for its delicious sides … and as consumers engage with this meal trend, we want to offer them a delicious option that’s all about letting those dishes shine in a unique way.”
TikTokers pull back the curtain on a huge array of those easy/lazy dinners for single women or tired moms eating solo, although it’s a stretch to consider all of TikTokers’ Girl Dinners to be real meals. Sometimes they’re as puny as a helping of popcorn or tortilla chips, a can of Red Bull, a Lunchable, or ice cream. One shows chicken nuggets, chocolate milk and a brownie (more of a meal, but where are the fruits and veggies?).
TikTok’s #girldinner, which Forbes says has been watched more than 1.6 billion times, originated with Olivia Maher, who showed a Girl Dinner of cheese, crackers and grapes. A follow-up video from Karma Carr apparently kicked off an audio accompaniment: “This is my meal, I call this Girl Dinner” followed by a chorus of “Girl Dinner,” Ad Age reported.
What the Critics Say
Of course, not everyone is a fan of Girl Dinner and Girl Math. Many critics say that social media influencers promote unhealthy eating relating to Girl Dinner. And the Fox TV report called Girl Math the excuses that everybody – men as well as women – use for blowing money. The station’s reporter says the danger is that some people may live by the logic behind “free” items.
Simply using the word “girl” has prompted a backlash in certain quarters. The Forbes article cited critics who called “girl” trends infantilizing and harmful for reinforcing negative stereotypes about women. Adulting podcast host Oenone Forbat told USA Today that the “girl” label may or may not be pejorative or condescending, depending on the source. For example, she said when a man she didn’t know called her and her friends “girls,” it felt degrading. But Forbat said that celebratory cultural “girl” trends can be a “reclamation of feminine energy.”
