PIZZA HUT: gave away a year’s worth of free pizza on New Year’s Day to families who gave birth to the first set of twins of the year at major hospitals in Atlanta, Dallas, Boston, New York City, Los Angles and Chicago. The giveaway was part of Pizza Hut’s new Pick Your Pair promotion, which offers consumers two medium pizzas with two toppings for $6.99 each. The promotion runs for five weeks. Online materials support.
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS: and NBC are granting free park admission to anyone named Earl this month to celebrate the move of NBC’s comedy My Name is Earl to Thursday nights. The “Earl” promotion runs through January and includes an official T-shirt. About 10,000 men named Earl live in the Los Angeles area, the company said. My Name is Earl moves from Tuesday nights to Thursdays starting Jan. 5.
SHOPKO STORES: Green Bay, WI, last week completed its sale to Sun Capital Partners. ShopKo will continue to run as an independent company, operating 137 ShopKo and 216 Pamida general-merchandise stores, and three ShopKo Express Rx stores in 22 states across the Midwest and West. The purchase, announced in October, scuttled ShopKo’s earlier merger agreement with Badger Retail Holding.
CARLSON RESTAURANTS WORLDWIDE: has appointed Laurie Curtis to VP-brand marketing for T.G.I. Friday’s U.S.A. In her new role, Curtis oversees all national marketing and advertising for the T.G.I. Friday’s U.S.A. brand. She recently served as global brand marketing director for the Pizza Hut brand of Yum! Restaurants International where she helped redefine the core brand identity and led global marketing strategies throughout the chain’s 4,700 restaurants in 100 countries.
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