Domino’s Pizza: Why is a pizza place fixing up the roads?

The popular pizza chain Domino’s Pizza has gotten into the business of fixing roads by filling potholes, but why is the restaurant stepping up?

A common complaint for every American motorist is the sheer number of potholes on the roads. It’s a problem across the United States of America, and for whatever budgetary reasons, far too many potholes are left unfilled. This causes untold amounts of damage to the tires of countless amounts of vehicles, and for some it’s starting to seem that fixing them is hopeless.

Enter Domino’s Pizza. It was recently announced that the popular pizza chain would be taking on the job of filling up potholes across America themselves. The idea, of course, is that potholes are infamous for ruining pizzas, as hitting one can cause the pie to move around in the box (or, even worse, fall out entirely). On the surface, the concept is to ensure every Domino’s brand pizza has a safer trip from the restaurant to your home – but as Yahoo reports, there’s more to it than that.

It began with carry-out insurance

Domino’s VP of advertisting Kate Trumbull says the new campaign is an effort  from the company that’s been months in the making. Furthermore, it’s spawned from an earlier marketing campaign from Domino’s in the interest of protecting pizzas, and has snowballed from something simple to something much larger.

“This idea came from when you hit a pothole and you have a pizza in your front seat,” Trumbull explains. “It’s kind of a dramatic moment and dials up the fear factor that something would happen to your delicious pizza.” From there, Domino’s would offer “carry-out insurance” for their pizzas, with the promise that customers could return a pie to the restaurant for a fresh one if anything happens to it on the way home.

Seventeen more cities left to go

From the concept of carry-out insurance, the idea was proposed to go even bigger. How nice would it be to fill the potholes themselves altogether? So, with the help of a third-party organization, Domino’s began looking for cities who were open to them helping to fill the town’s potholes. Interested cities were then given grants from the company to do the work themselves, under the guidance of Domino’s.

The project first began in January of this year, and the current plan is to provide grants to 17 more cities. As you can expect, applicants from all 50 states are hoping to have help from the pizza chain patching up their pothole-filled roads. If only they were able to fill them all, but taking this kind of initiative is a good start. You can nominate your town to receive help at PavingForPizza.com. The nomination process will end on August 31, which means there’s just under two months left.

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How do you feel about Domino’s Pizza patching up the roads? Is your city in desperate need of the restaurant’s help? Tell us how you feel in the comments below!