There seems to be one universal rule to carrying a pizza box: Never hold the box vertically. However, Pizza Hut is challenging decades of tradition with its latest stunt in the United Kingdom featuring a vertical pizza box.
In early February, the chain debuted the upright carriers on the streets of London, turning heads and leaving bystanders to wonder how the pie wasn’t a folded mess at the bottom of the box in what appeared to be a feat of engineering.
The campaign was a result of a collaboration with Iris, a global marketing agency.
“It’s exactly the kind of idea we love making with Pizza Hut, simple, unexpected and designed for people to participate in,” said Menno Kluin, global chief creative officer at Iris, per Creative Boom.
“Instead of explaining the concept upfront, we put it out into the world and let the internet do what it does best: spot it, share it and debate it. It’s a social-first stunt built to feel real, spark genuine curiosity and turn prototype into a talking point,” Kluin continued.
Pizza pressures
The stunt comes as the company has seen its sales fall for two straight years, according to Restaurant Dive. Pizza Hut is not alone in its struggles — Papa John’s shares are down more than 60% since 2022.
While overall pizza industry sales increased 7% over the last few years, it is still losing ground to competitors, according to Fox News. The “golden age” of pizza delivery is fading as the chain’s once-exclusive monopoly on convenience has evaporated; now, nearly every restaurant offers delivery thanks to apps like DoorDash and UberEats.
Roy Torres, global brand creative director at Pizza Hut, said the campaign was “made for social, made to travel and made to get everyone asking the same question: how does that even work?”
The curiosity worked. Social media users expressed their confusion, questioning if the box was even functional.
Pizza Hut eventually revealed the truth on social media: “Spotted our Vertical Pizza Boxes out in London recently? We’re sticking to our horizontal boxes for now...”
The Hut’s innovative history
Pizza Hut has a storied history of industry firsts. It popularized stuffed crust in 1995 and became the first company to make a “pizza delivery” to the International Space Station in 2001.
“Pizza Hut has always had a history of doing things differently,” Torres said, noting that the vertical box was a way to highlight the “innovation and imagination” at the heart of the brand.
This isn’t the first time the company has reimagined its packaging. In 2024, Pizza Hut launched a box that doubled as a table to help out during college moving season.
While the vertical box may have been a visual double take more than anything, it’s proving that “The Hut” is working on creative marketing to continue to win back customers.