The world’s largest pizza company is delivering something new to Anchorage: stunt marketing with a $25,000 grant for the city’s snow plowing.
“At Domino’s, we’re plowing unplowed roads across the country, because cold roads shouldn’t get in the way of hot pizza,” the narrator in a video ad says as a truck with a Domino’s branded plow cruises snowy streets. “Nominate your town for plowing assistance at PlowingForPizza.com.”
And Anchorage locals did put in nominations – a “significant” number, according to a spokesperson for the company.
The campaign started after Anchorage got its record-breaking snowfall in November, overwhelming the city’s snow removal system and shutting down schools for days. Snow in Alaska’s biggest city continued to break records in December and January.
“Yeah, so we’re the lucky winners,” Veronica Hoxie said with a chuckle.
Hoxie is a spokesperson for Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson. She said the grant agreement was signed last week, and that there are other procedural hurdles to clear before the money changes hands.
But when it does, what does $25,000 of snow plowing look like?
“In the grand scheme of things, not a whole lot,” Hoxie said. “But it is a fun little, you know, unique funding mechanism.”
It’s the equivalent of roughly 900 operator hours in the city’s street maintenance crews.
One condition of accepting the grant is that the city will share photos and video of its operations to be featured on Domino’s Plowing for Pizza website.
Jeremy Hsieh covers Anchorage with an emphasis on housing, homelessness, infrastructure and development. Reach him at jhsieh@alaskapublic.org or 907-550-8428. Read more about Jeremy here.
