Pizza Hut perfume: Yes, it's real

No matter which way you slice it (sorry), Pizza Hut has long been an innovator in the pizza industry: The chain gave the world stuffed crust, after all.

But now Pizza Hut is channeling its creative streak into other ventures, releasing its own Pizza Hut perfume.

“Introducing Pizza Hut Perfume – a brand new fragrance from Pizza Hut Canada boasting top notes of freshly baked, hand-tossed dough,” reads the press release from Pizza Hut and Yum! Brands. 

Appropriately enough, it began as a joke: Pizza Hut Canada’s marketing firm, Grip Limited, posted a tongue-in-cheek Facebook post on the Pizza Hut Canada fan page, asking, “Do you love the smell of a box of Pizza Hut pizza being opened? We thought so. If that smell was a perfume, what would it be called?”

Thousands responded, some requesting a bottle of Pizza Hut perfume for themselves. And so it was.

“The limited edition perfume was designed to commemorate Pizza Hut Canada reaching 100,000 Facebook fans,” the release reads. “Only 110 bottles were produced and shared with lucky Facebook fans who won a bottle by being among the first to share their desire for Pizza Hut perfume.”

“Will we be seeing Pizza Hut perfume in department stores any time soon? Only time will tell,” it goes on.

The Pizza Hut perfume continues the US-based chain’s habit of saving its boldest creations for customers abroad: It launched a Hot Dog crust pizza in Europe earlier this year, and a cheeseburger crust pizza, called the “Crown Crust Burger Pizza," in the Middle East soon after. In Japan, Pizza Hut offers a seafood-laden concoction called the Winter Double King Pizza, complete with crab and shrimp.

Yum! Brands, Pizza Hut’s parent company, has made a habit of these head-scratching products, giving US customers both the KFC Double Down (a sandwich in which the “bread” is two chicken breasts) and the Taco Bell Doritos Locos Taco (the taco shell is, more or less, a giant Dorito).

But is the Pizza Hut Perfume as daring and original as those food based offerings? Perhaps not. As some around the web have pointed out, Burger King did the perfume gag way back in 2008. Via its ad agency, Crispin Porter+Bogusky, the burger chain launched “Flame by BK,” a body spray for men that smelled like grilled meat. “Flame” was briefly available for the holidays in select Burger King locations for $3.99.

So Pizza Hut Perfume may not be the fast food innovator’s most innovative offering. But since it’s the holidays and all, let’s put aside the cries of copycat for now. There’s plenty of room in the world for two fast-food scented perfumes.