Pizza Hut’s Hong Kong arm launched a 24-hour promotion offering punters free pineapple on their pizzas after the controversial Olympic fencing gold medal match between Hong Kong’s Ka Long Cheung and Italy’s Filippo Macchi.
The promotion was certainly a hit with Piza Hut’s Hong Kong audience, with the Facebook post announcing the deal attracting more than 11,000 reactions and more than 2,000 shares.
“If you are a foodie, choose the Italian style and add pineapple,” Pizza Hut Hong Kong & Monaco wrote on Facebook (translated via Google Translate).
“Or add Hawaiian style with pineapple, starting from $139 [$AU27]!”
The controversial fencing match between Cheung and Macchi finished 15-14 after going to sudden death. There were two moments where the judges had to use video footage to determine whether the winning 15th point had been scored, but offered no points on both occasions.
Eventually, Cheung won a third contentious point and defeated defending champion Macchi.
The golden touch of Hong Kong, China! 🇭🇰
Congratulations to Cheung Ka Long, achieving back-to-back #gold in fencing men’s foil individual 🤺
He becomes the first athlete from Hong Kong, China to win two Olympic gold medals. He is also the first athlete in this event to win… pic.twitter.com/nj3g5tHR1i
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 29, 2024
However, after the match the Italian Fencing Federation (IFF) announced it was filing a formal protest with Olympic fencing’s governing body and the International Olympic Committee, contesting the result. The IFF took particular issue with the referees’ home countries of Taipei and South Korea, alleging that they were too close geographically to Hong Kong to arbitrate fairly.
“Filippo Macchi is the real winner and he was denied a gold he deserved,” said IFF president Paolo Azzi in a statement (translated via Google Translate). “The selection of referees is a problem but the level of refereeing was below the great final we saw.”
Sporting fans have been debating the merits of the Italian team’s argument online, with many noting that while the gold medal match was refereed by Huang Hao-Chih from Taipei, with Suh Sangwon of South Korea acting as the video referee, Ayoub Ferjani from Tunisia and Vilem Madr from the Czech Republic served as assistant referees. The same four judges previously refereed Macchi’s 15-11 semi-final win against U.S. fencer Nick Itkin.
Macchi’s quarter-final win against Egypt’s Mohamed Hamza was also overseen by Madr and Tim Claus Bardenhagen, whose home countries of the Czech Republic and Germany are much closer to Italy than Egypt. The IFP did not raise any objections in these previous matches.
Pizza Hut’s speedy marketing activity calls to mind The Monkey’s “England Bitter” campaign for Victoria Bitter, which saw the beer brand release a special edition bottle following the stumping controversy on the final day of the second Ashes test last year.
Aussie wicketkeeper Alex Carey stumped English batsman Jonny Bairstow after he left the crease, assuming the ball was dead and that the umpire had called the end of the over.
“England Bitter” went onto win a number of awards, including Best PR Campaign at last year’s B&T Awards. Tickets for this year’s B&T Awards are on sale now.
