KFC, TACO BELL, PIZZA HUT COOK UP STAR WARS PROMO
By Adnews Staff
Tricon Canada of Rexdale, Ontario, a division of Tricon Restaurants International of Dallas, Texas, which owns and markets the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC brands, has launched a consumer event uniting all three of Tricon's brands in a shared North American promotion. To support this promotion, Tricon created an integrated program including advertising, premiums, merchandising and packaging all tied-in to Star Wars. Each restaurant is decorated to recall the theme and environment of one of three planets from the movie: KFC represents Naboo, Pizza Hut represents Coruscant and Taco Bell represents Taooine. The company has also created a summer promotion called "Defeat the Dark Side & Win", a game that can be played at all three restaurants. The game involves the collection of game medallions at all three restaurants and the arrangement of them on a game board. There are two ways to win: instantly and through collect and win. The promotion features a set of 28 collectible toys, 12 cup-toppers and two different bucket lids based on characters from the movie. To support the promotion the company launched a new advertising campaign on May 10, created by TBWA Chiat/Day. The company features the brands together in one spot, uniting Colonel Saunders, The Taco Bell talking Chihuahua and a Pizza Hut spokescharacter. BBDO of Toronto handled the children's English toy advertising, while all in-store materials were created by G/Comm Marketing. A separate spot running in Quebec was created by Acadamie Ogilvy.