With commercialreview.nl we did a sample (60 respondents) in the Netherlands and focused on the target group of people with a religious background to find out why many people are attracted to a campaign like this. We asked about their initial reaction and whether their vision of the New York Pizza brand changed after seeing the commercial.

The commercial did not fare very well and received an average of 4.4 on a scale of 1-10. It seems that many respondents do not really appreciate the commercial. However, the commercial has been labeled as funny quite a few times. Many respondents can see the humor in it. We did a text analysis of the words most mentioned in the comments. The top 5 includes the words “sex/sexist/sexual” (13x), “funny” (9x) and “children” (5x).

We list a number of responses:

"I don't think this is a good way to draw attention to the cauliflower pizza. The image distracts greatly from the message and also has nothing to do with the introduction of the new pizza."

“Not very useful for the kids. Sex does not sell to all age groups/target groups.”

"I notice that it is annoying when this comes by during the day (kids in the neighborhood), until I realize that it is the pizza commercial. At first it causes resistance."

What came up more often is that the connection between eroticism and a sex line with pizza is not logical, although this is actually a strategy to choose a striking association. Yet this caused some form of resistance among a number of respondents. The main reason not to like this commercial is not that the commercial is not funny, not that it is TOO sexist, but mainly because the association between pizza and a sex line is far from logical, and that children can also see the sensual content.

We saw a big difference in how this commercial was perceived by men and women. Women were much more negative than men about this commercial.

The advice is therefore: think carefully about your target group. With pizzas you would expect that this is for everyone and that you therefore do not want to exclude anyone from your communication. Every random Dutch person is a (potential) customer, but with a campaign and commercial like this, inclusivity, that there are for everyone, is reasonably compromised, given the reactions.

The future will of course show whether this campaign and commercial for New York Pizza will really be harmful, or whether it was indeed “a healthy (nutrient) basis” for sales and brand name. It is certain that this campaign has already generated a lot of attention and publications and has caused a stir. It is a daring strategy that will in any case significantly increase brand awareness. We gauged the interest among our respondents in New York Pizza's offering after seeing this commercial. Here too, a clear difference between men and women is visible.

With commercialreview.nl we offer studies with which we can pre- and post-test your commercial (or other commercial expression) thoroughly, quickly, transparently and cost-effectively. Our vision is that it should be self-evident that every company can be sure that all their commercials will have the right effect and are relevant, by having presented them to their target group on commercialreview.nl. Be sure to contact us!