According to Media Life Magazine, “The pizza looks piping hot and very inviting. The crust is golden brown. The veggie toppings glisten. You can actually see the steam billowing off the pie.”

“Thing is, you’re not looking at a pizza fresh from the oven. The pizza you see is on a billboard. But the steam you see rising up from the billboard is quite real. It’s being pumped out to create the illusion of a pie that’s just been pulled out of the oven.  It’s part of a campaign for Donatos Pizza, a chain based in Columbus, Ohio, promoting its new hand-tossed pie.”

“There were two goals that helped inspire the idea, says a spokesperson at Columbus-based Engauge, the agency that worked on the campaign for Donatos.The first was to communicate that the pizza tastes great. And the second was to show that this new Donatos hand-tossed pizza comes in slices (Donatos specializes in thin crust pizza that is cut in rectangles). The agency worked closely with Clear Channel Outdoor and an independent contractor to get the effect just right. First ducts were installed in the billboard to emit the steam, then the pizza had to be positioned at a certain height on the board in order to create the illusion that the steam was rising from the pie. The steam was released every minute during peak commuter hours in downtown Columbus.”