Pizza Hut Will Now be Known as "The Hut"

Atlanta (WXIA) - Advertising and marketing critics have pointed to several campaigns that they have called miscues this year. Now, some are pointing to a new move by delivery food giant Pizza Hut to remake its image.

Since the beginning of 2009, several makeovers and moderizations have been railed against by design and marketing critics, including the new packaging and logos for Pepsi-brand products, the now-aborted overhaul of Tropicana's juices, and next month's renaming of the SciFi Channel as SyFy.

Over the past several months, eagle-eyed consumers have noticed that in many cities, Pizza Hut has changed the branding on their pizza boxes to simply say "The Hut." Now, the chain is rebranding some of their stores to match.

The new logo, with bold print beneath the chain's trademark red roofline is adorning store signage and marquees in some states.

Company officials, in a BrandWeek magazine article in March, were very happy with the new direction.

"...we're also introducing another vocabulary word with Pizza Hut, which is 'The Hut.' That ties in nicely with [today's] texting generation. We wanted to make sure that Pizza Hut and 'The Hut' become common vernacular for our brand. Red is our mark and when you see that red roof, people will refer to it as 'The Hut' or 'Pizza Hut.' As we expand our online and mobile businesses, 'The Hut' is the perfect icon for our mobile generation."

It remains to see if the younger demographic that Pizza Hut is aiming for will take up the new shorter name and image.