Can’t Stomach Mr. Tubby as Pizza Power Icon? He’s Not!

OK, I hear ya! Some of our faithful readers had a beef—maybe a cow—with the lead photo on our last This Week in Pizza Newsletter. It covered a story about a research study that finds men tend to pig out when eating with a woman in some kind of primordial power play that goes back to who owns the biggest castle apparently. To illustrate the point, we found a photo of an especially gross looking guy wearing a badly stained wife-beater undershirt poised just north of his lower belly bulge and sagging sweat pants. Not a pretty picture.

A couple of concerned fans have questioned our sanity as a communications company dedicated to helping pizzerias sell America’s favorite food. One dear reader said the image would “turn off many people,” and he has a good point. He added that “we must have a good reason for doing it” and I’ll admit my response is maybe not good enough. You see, we love pizza around here and we absolutely dig the great people in the industry who make our company possible. Yes we wholeheartedly want to help you all sell pizza, run successful businesses and make a unifying contribution to your communities. As journalists and graphic designers, we also want to make dramatic impressions with our words and images. Especially in our online newsletter, we strive to grab you, captivate you and engage you with headlines and graphics that pull you in and prevent you from distractedly clicking on to the next story, the next website, the next sensory experience. So we try to be bold. In this case, the Neanderthal dude seemed to make the point of the story in a compelling way that made us chuckle.

But this blog is called Pizza Perspective.  And when I think about the perspectives of my readers who are working hard to support a new mindset of pizza as a healthy part of a well rounded diet when eaten in moderation, I’m not smiling. I have written extensively in PMQ Pizza Magazine and on PMQ.com about pizza’s nutritional benefits and great fit as part of dynamic lifestyle. In our May 2015 issue the cover story “Why Pizza’s Good For You” was illustrated by this image of a fantastically fit pizza fan. We even used this photo in a poster called "Seven Reasons to Enjoy Your Favorite Food Without Worry," which can be downloaded at www.pmq.com/bodybypizza-printready.pdf and put up on pizzeria walls to promote a healthier image of pizza.

To hammer home the point of pizza’s rising power position in the health-minded millennials’ diet, we featured this image of today’s research-documented “typical pizza lover” on the cover of our December 2015 issue.  By the way, the story cites another study finding that 63% of pizza lovers are women, more than half are younger than 45 and that 68% of this group works out at least twice a week. So much for Mr. Tubby being the face—or the stomach—of pizza popularity today.

Throughout the year, in our magazine, website and newsletter, we have featured stories and images depicting people losing weight on pizza diets, pioneering approaches to healthier crusts and toppings and incorporating pizza night into healthy family eating plans. We’ve also pointed out the problems with government-sponsored studies that blame pizza for extra fat in school menus.

So Don Hunt (yes that Don Hunt) of Hunt Brothers Pizza is right that PMQ is all about giving you a hand in making pizza even more popular as we move ahead into 2016. Check out the exciting stories we’ll be producing online, in print and on video, which will hopefully make your job easier. Mr. Hunt closed his much appreciated note with “Other than that (our redneck pizza-pounding poster boy) I enjoy getting your emails. God bless you all.”

From your pizza advocates at PMQ, same to you Mr. Hunt, and blessings to our pizza family around the world.