Pizza is probably the world's most perfect food. As a matter of fact, the United States Government considers Pizza a complete food that covers all the major food groups.

After listening to a speech by Perry J. Ludy, I was really inspired by the comments about the most powerful marketing campaign in America. I am talking about a food product that was almost completely dried up. It was the single most widely recognized and one of the most memorable ad campaigns in history. "Got Milk" has become a cultural phenomenon. The campaign accomplished what many thought was impossible. It helped stop the decline in milk sales by changing the image and projecting health and fitness to the public.  According to Ludy, "It even forced Coke and Pepsi to add milk based drinks to their inventory."

I am not saying we should duplicate the  "Got Milk" campaign, but the idea is to draw all the pizza operators together and make pizza the number one requested food in the world.  Pizza is the most perfect food and it should rise above the burger.  The Pizza Foundation can be formed to bring the Pizza operators together. This would be comprised of the independent pizza operators and franchises, but not include frozen pizza manufacturers.  The Pizza Foundation is a non-profit organization to service the national marketing and advertising program

"Everything goes perfect with pizza," commented Paul Friedman of Paul's Pizza Shop in Houston, Texas. Paul called me with this inspirational comment, to raise pizza to the top of the charts. Paul said, "If every operator gave $100 to a national campaign, we would all benefit greatly. I believe that a national marketing effort can bring pizza to the number one selling food in the world. There have been many individual, innovative and creative marketing and advertising concepts have been used to bring the customer back, but we need to jump start the public with a national sales campaign.  We can start with TV and radio and we grow to billboards, celebrity identification, T-shirts, bumper stickers and even a sports team.

The Pizza Foundation will be a non-profit organization to market fresh baked pizza on a national scale. It will be staffed by the best pizza pacesetters in the country.  A complete program to include billboards, bus signs, web banners, T-Shirts, spokespeople, print ad, TV and radio.

The first step in this national marketing effort is to come up with a slogan. Listed to the left are some ideas, but we are not limited to just those.

The second step of the process is to better understand if the pizza operators, from small to large, want to participate in a massive national program such as this. We need input either by going to www.ipizzamall.com, call 1-800-784-4883 or we can mail or fax you a questionnaire if you don't have internet access.

Pizza is full of essential vitamins, minerals and is lower in fat and easier to digest than a burger or a hot dog. A national program can be designed and launched to educate the consumer about benefits and features of pizza. Within two years of the pizza campaign, we hope that pizza will be the number one food in the nation.

We need you to help us get this program off the ground, if you want to help this project on the ground floor please feel free to contact Michael P.Cohen at Michael@mskj.com or call 1-800-784-4883.

Please go to www.ipizzamall.com and take an online survey to help drive the program. The survey takes only about 30 seconds. If you do not have internet access, please call 1-800-784-4883 and we can mail or fax the survey.

Like the "Got Milk" campaign, the pizza industry would also need a short, but highly effective slogan. Here's just a few to get you thinking about the possibilities. What ideas do you have?

Pizza, Cool!
It's the Best, Pizza!
Pizza Perfect!
Top This, Pizza
Real Food? Pizza
Pizza is Hot!
Pizza, Dude

Go to www.ipizzamall.com and take the very short survey. It only takes about 30 seconds and you can view the results immediately.