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Fried chicken and pizza are two of the most beloved food items globally, but they don’t always go together. At KFC restaurants in countries including the Philippines, Thailand, India, Mexico and Spain, diners have long been able to experience the best of both worlds through a hybrid called “chizza.”
Now, hungry fans across the U.S. will also have a chance to order the indulgent delicacy at certain KFC locations from Feb. 26 through March 31. To celebrate its stateside debut, the Yum! Brands chicken chain and its creative agency, MullenLowe, transformed KFC’s popular 14th Street Manhattan restaurant into a classic New York pizzeria.
KFC and MullenLowe redesigned the exterior and interior of the store by adding details including neon signs and the quintessential celebrity wall that appears in many pizzerias. The restaurant exclusively served complimentary chizzas—two fried chicken filets topped with marinara sauce, mozzarella and pepperoni—along with beverage options from its partner, Pepsi.
Along with the free eats and Instagram-able atmosphere, fans who lined up for the experience also scored chizza merchandise when they signed up for the brand’s new rewards program, which launched in early February and allows customers to unlock free food, personalized offers for discounts and other deals through the KFC application.
“Because pizza is an iconic New York City food, and we feel as though we are disrupting the pizza industry with KFC’s newest mashup, we thought it would be clever to disrupt and transform one of the most iconic KFC locations in Manhattan into the world’s first Chizzeria as an ode to the Big Apple’s beloved and most well-renowned food,” Enrique Camacho, senior vice president and group creative director at MullenLowe, told ADWEEK.
To whet fans’ appetites before the popup, KFC also ran five spots across TV, digital and social, including a 15-second video featuring viral TikTok star Bad Granny as a disapproving Italian nonna (grandmother).
