Pizza Hut Delivers Augmented Reality Pac Man

Scanning a pizza box QR code with a smartphone unleashes an AR version of the arcade classic.

With American’s hunger for both pizza delivery and 80’s nostalgia continuing to run strong, Pizza Hut is looking to gobble up the competition with what the company is calling their "Newstalgia" campaign.

A cornerstone of the new promotion will be providing delivery customers with QR codes on their pizza boxes. Scanning the code with a smartphone unleashes an augmented reality version of the arcade classic Pac Man, whose original name was actually Puck Man. For some reason, that was changed before being introduced to U.S. audiences. 

In addition to bringing back the prince of power pellets, Pizza Hut will produce retro-driven ads featuring Book It! pins, red cups, and those super classy stained-glass lamps.

The chain will also give Pac Man fans an opportunity to win an Arcade1Up standing Pac Man game machine. 

The partnership seems like a natural fit. Yukata Buse, the head of licensing and branding at Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., which owns the license to the Pac Man character, recently told FoodandWine.com that Pac-Man's design was actually inspired by the shape of a pizza, with his mouth representing a missing slice.

Yum!, Pizza Hut’s parent company, recently announced that same-store sales increase by a pandemic-fueled 8% percent in the fourth quarter – its best performance in a decade.

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