What made people in Saudi Arabia call for a boycott of Pizza Hut altogether

When Pizza Hut introduced the stuffed crust Pizza in 1995, they oddly turned to a celebrity from Britain to introduce this concept to the American public. The related ad sees him attempting to reunite “The Boys” as he keeps calling them throughout the ad in celebration of this new development in pizza, only for a mix up to result in the arrival of the 3 band members from the US band Monkees. Weirdly, he had never eaten a slice of Pizza in real life due to severe allergies to onion, garlic and spices and can be glimpsed at the very end of the ad trying very hard not to actually insert a slice of the pizza in his mouth. Who is he?

Famous restaurant chain Pizza Hut was forced to apologise for an advertisement that allegedly insulted people with a stammering problem.

As per a report on BBC, the issue started after Pizza Hut Saudi Arabia posted an advertisement on its Twitter account. The tweet which appeared on ‘International Stammering Awareness Day’ gave information about new offers, but the tweet that was in Arabic was filled with repeated letters and syllables.

Soon Twitter users started to criticise the advertisement which was apparently mocking people with stuttering issues on a day that was meant for supporting people with the problem. And soon, a hashtag written in Arabic calling for a boycott of the restaurant chain was being widely used on social networking site.

Later authorities also took notice of the offensive advertisement. Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Trade and Investment posted the screenshot of the controversial advertisement on its Twitter account and stated that the advertisement was a violation of its rules. It also promised to take proper action against the company.

(Source: @ SaudiMCI, Twitter)

The restaurant chain soon took action to resolve the issue. The company deleted the advertisement and posted a tweet that apologised for the earlier tweet. In the new tweet that was also in Arabic the company also assured to take action against those who were behind the ‘irresponsible’ tweet.

Source: @ PizzaHut_Saudi, Twitter

This is not the first time that the company has had its run in with controversy for its insensitive advertisements. Earlier the company was criticised in Israel after an ad that allegedly mocked Palestinian activists who were carrying out hunger strikes inside prisons.