Pizza Hut launching break-up food for Valentine’s Day

While most Valentine’s Day foods are designed to either be shared with a loved one or eaten alone to celebrate the single life, Yum Brands (YUM) - Get Free Report-owned Pizza Hut is targeting those making the questionable choice to end a relationship on or right before Feb. 14.

According to government poll data pulled by the fast-food chain, 45% of those asked the question in a survey believe that it is best to complete one’s breakup before the holiday while the Tuesday before Valentine’s Day is statistically the day of the year when the most break-ups occur.

With a week left before the holiday, Pizza Hut launched its new Hot Honey Pizza and is offering those who live in New York, Miami or Chicago a chance to send the person they want to break up with a “good-bye pie” in what it says is a way to “ditch that awkward break-up convo and send a pizza instead.”

A Pizza Hut pie in a cardboard box is seen being handed from one person to another.

Yum Brands

Would you really break up with a Pizza? Pizza Hut is banking on it

To participate, those interested can go to GoodbyePies.com and submit the address of the person they want to send the pizza to with a note saying that you no longer want to be together but would like to make up for the pain caused with a pizza. The cardboard box the pizza comes in has a special line in which one can write the recipient’s name.

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Pizza Hut will then send the pizza to those who participate before supplies run out while those outside the three main cities can instead give a phone number to which Pizza Hut will send a break-up text and a voucher to pick up the pizza at a nearby location. The promotion will be free for those who put their names down in time and is meant to draw attention to the new menu item.

With a starting price of $11.99 for a personal version, the new Hot Honey Pizza is a pepperoni pizza topped with the hot honey sauce made by blending honey with red chili peppers. The same sauce is also available on bone-in and boneless chicken wings that Pizza Hut sells for $5.99.

‘Deliver spicy news in the sweetest way…’

“With the launch of Goodbye Pies, we are bringing that perfect blend of sweet and heat experience to real life, delivering spicy news in the sweetest way for Valentine’s Day,” Pizza Hut’s Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Morgan said in a statement.

Pizza Hut did not expand on how such news would be received by the person being broken up with — while some will surely appreciate the free pizza, the promotion also encourages running from a difficult conversation by hiding behind a pizza. There’s also the question of why someone would want to send a pizza to someone they no longer wish to see.

But according to the chain’s promotional materials, the “sweet and spicy” Hot Honey pizza is meant as a way to help ”ease the pain” on the biggest break-up day of the year as well as the week after it.

“There’s even a phenomenon called ‘Red Tuesday,’ which is the Tuesday before Valentine’s Day, where people break up most often in the year,” Pizza Hut says.