Dave Portnoy calls Pizza Hut's temporary 'Hut' rebrand 'a brilliant move' — then pitches Barstool for its ad dollars
Key Takeaways
- •Dave Portnoy called Pizza Hut’s temporary rebrand to “Hut” a brilliant marketing move.
- •Portnoy said Pizza Hut does business with Barstool Sports and hinted the company should spend more on Barstool advertising during football season.
- •Pizza Hut will use the shortened name for 25 weeks during the 2026 NFL season.
- •The promotion plays on the “hut” call used by quarterbacks at the line of scrimmage.
- •Pizza Hut revealed the change in Plano, Texas, and updated its social media branding to remove the word “Pizza.”
Barstool Sports founder and "One Bite" pizza reviewer Dave Portnoy has thrown his support behind Yum! Brands' campaign to temporarily rebrand Pizza Hut, praising the pizza chain's strategic marketing move as "brilliant" while pitching company executives on directing advertising dollars toward Barstool Sports during football season.
Portnoy, who built Barstool from a 2003 Boston-area print publication into a digital sports and pop-culture outlet known for its football coverage, addressed the rebrand during an appearance Friday on FOX Business' "Varney & Co.".
"At first, I didn't really get it. But I'll say this, Stuart. We do business with Pizza Hut. And we want them to spend lots of money with Barstool. So I think it's a brilliant move. Whoever came up with that, I like it," Portnoy said.
"They're thinking smart. It's football season. There it is, the football with the 'Hut.' And you know, they're gonna spread this message. They gotta find some new media vehicles that cover football," he continued, "and maybe do a little bit of an ad spend to let people know what's going on so they don't get confused."
FOX Business host Stuart Varney replied: "And Barstool Sports is ideally situated to pick up a little pizza business, right?"
"You don't say!" Portnoy responded.
On Wednesday, the chain announced that it will go by "Hut" for the next 25 weeks, a temporary change coinciding with the 2026 NFL season. The shortened name plays off the "hut" call quarterbacks bark at the line of scrimmage, and Pizza Hut is no stranger to the league: the chain became the NFL's official pizza sponsor in 2018, taking over the role from Papa John's. Temporary rebrands are a familiar playbook in the restaurant business, too — IHOP famously flipped to "IHOb" in 2018 to promote its burger menu.
"You can just call us HUT for the next 25 weeks," Pizza Hut wrote in a social media post announcing the temporary rebrand.
The company showed off the change at a restaurant in Plano, Texas, where a banner featuring a football covered the word "Pizza" on the restaurant's exterior sign. Pizza Hut, which is headquartered in Plano and operates under Yum! Brands alongside sibling chains KFC and Taco Bell, also changed its social media profile images to a logo without the word "Pizza."
FOX Business' Brittany Miller contributed to this report.
Source: Fox Business
