---
title: "Advertising Age: Papa John’s Aims at Rivals With Pan Pizza, Its Biggest New Product in Years"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/daaff2cb-ac30-4238-b353-a1fa488b9b70
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/advertising-age-papa-johns-aims-at-rivals-with-pan-pizza-its-biggest-new-product-in-years-6328
category: "Restaurants"
industry: "Restaurants"
topics: ["Marketing"]
published: 2016-10-10T21:16:32.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T04:13:05.504Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/eff2881fe77c4419aef2a1d58b01ab3a4440.jpg
---

# Advertising Age: Papa John’s Aims at Rivals With Pan Pizza, Its Biggest New Product in Years

**TL;DR:** Papa John's is rolling out a pan pizza nationally after two years of development, aiming to be its biggest new product in 10 years. The company previously tried to sell a square-shaped pan pizza over a decade ago, which did not perform well.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2016-10-10. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/advertising-age-papa-johns-aims-at-rivals-with-pan-pizza-its-biggest-new-product-in-years-6328).*

## Story

The third-largest pizza chain in the U.S. is trying out pan pizza again. According to a recent Advertising Age article, Papa John’s is rolling out a pan pizza nationally after two years of developing the product.

The company tried to sell a square-shaped pan pizza more than a decade ago that did not perform well at all, but the brand is hoping the new version that is round and comes in a black box, will be the brand’s biggest new product in 10 years.

"Pan does represent a fairly significant percentage of the overall pizza industry and so we just thought that was a great opportunity," Mr. Muldoon said.

The September 2005 launch of pan pizza included a campaign featuring Dan Marino and was--at that time--the largest new product roll-out the company had since the launch of its thin crust pizza in 1996. 10 years later, the company will be promoting the new pan pizza with a commercial that features a different football star, Peyton Manning.

Papa John’s has been teasing the new pizza on social media with an image of a black box saying “Something Better is coming.” Soon enough, we will see if customers agree with the statement.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- Papa Johns (company)
- marketing campaign (topic)
- new product launch (topic)
- pizza industry (topic)
- Peyton Manning (person)
- pan pizza (topic)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/advertising-age-papa-johns-aims-at-rivals-with-pan-pizza-its-biggest-new-product-in-years-6328). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/daaff2cb-ac30-4238-b353-a1fa488b9b70).