Pizza Hut Book Club Controversy
Book groups and controversy go hand in hand! Pizza Hut Controversy
Book groups and controversy go hand in hand. Everyone knows that most book clubs are a cover for gossip and scandal and that writers’ notes and discussions on the hero’s journey come second (if at all) to a good real-life yarn about a whodunit. And Big Pizza is no stranger to scandal; who can forget Pizza gate 2016 or its contentious return in 2020? According to Esquire, a single email about the owner of a pizzeria possibly attending a fundraiser for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sparked years of child-trafficking accusations, the growth of alt-right fanaticism, and one of our generation’s most bizarre conspiracy theories. Sad.
Email that sparked a thousand conspiracy theories
Today’s Pizza Hut book club controversy is significantly milder than the email that sparked a thousand conspiracy theories, but that could be because books take far longer to disseminate than emails. According to Newsweek, it all started with a good intention: a literacy program for children. Pizza Hut brought its “Book It!” campaign to classrooms in 1984. According to Every Child a Reader, teachers should motivate pupils to read by rewarding them with personal pan pizza perks when they meet their monthly targets. Unfortunately, in 2022, it’s only a matter of time before what you believe is nice turns out to be something people (read: Twitter) have to explain to you is actually terrible, corrupt, or otherwise not cool, bro.
LGBTQ+-friendly books on the Book
In the instance of “Book It!,” the Pizza Hut book club debate is hotter than a sizzling hot personal pizza. According to Newsweek, everything was well until Pizza Hut decided to put some LGBTQ+-friendly books on the Book It! website in honour of Pride Month in June. “Big Wig” by Jonathan Hillman and “Be Amazing: A History of Pride” by Desmond is Amazing are two examples of the program’s kid fiction that honour the LGBTQ+ community; both inspire youngsters to find their “truest and best self” and be brave enough to share that with the world. As usual, Twitter responded: “Not on our watch.”
It’s a new pizza hut drama
According to Twitter users such as Brigitte Gabriel, “Pizza Hut has gone full woke, now we must make them full broke.” Of course, everyone likes a good rhyme, but when you dig deeper into what Gabriel is talking about, a slew of angry, nasty comments emerge, packed with individuals who believe Pizza Hut is attempting to “convert youngsters into drag queens,” according to Newsweek. Because Twitter is known for its backlash-to-backlash business model, Newsweek writes that there are plenty of tweets calling out conservative voices that want to “delete” Pizza Hut, implying that perhaps we as a country have more urgent concerns to deal with. We’ll see about that at the next book club meeting.