Many many moons ago, John and I both worked at an Ad Agency called BBDO. But we didn’t work together and didn’t work there at the same time. So why bring it up at all? Because one of the accounts we both worked on was Pizza Hut. At that time the agency was really into “great.” Oh and “Best” that was huge as well. They had Hellman’s, Bring out the Hellman’s and bring out your best, Gillette, the best a man can get, HBO, simply the best and then they went even better and came up with Pizza Hut, Making it Great. So now that Al’s pizza franchise has been selected Franchise of the Year, we went back into our combined ad experiences and came up with the title for this blog, Makin’ It Great. ‘Cause Al made his pizza franchise great. As we stated a few weeks ago, “and if you don’t know, now you know.”

As the comic enters its 5th year we have had fun at our characters’ expense. SO just this once, we thought we’d have something turn out right for good old Al. Okay, if truth be told, JOHN wanted something to turn out right, while I wanted Al to get accused of scrimping on the mozzarella and pepperoni to falsely pump up his profit margins. At the end John convinced me that we could still be funny, even if Al is a legitimate success. We hope after you finish the three-part series, you’ll agree.

The second comic this week…oh wait, it’s about the same topic as the first comic…deals with what happens once Al and Joanne get to the Pizza Convention. The Holiday Inn John drew is an amalgamation of every time-worn Super 8, Days Inn, Holiday Inn and Motel 6 we’ve ever had the misfortune to grace. Just a year ago, my wife and I had the “opportunity” of staying in a Super 8 which came with damp carpeting, mothball smell and the thinnest bath towels I’ve ever seen. On the plus side there was free wireless and HBO. Why is it that the Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons charges you an extra $15 a night for “high-speed wireless” when the Super 8 tosses it in for free? I don't get it. And if that’s “high speed,” I’d hate to experience slow speed. It’d take 4 1/2 hours to stream 60 Minutes.We imagined what it might be like to be feted at one of these places. In fact I was rumored to be the recipient of an award like this (Agency Partner of the Year, or something like that). I carefully wrote and rewrote my acceptance speech, careful to make it funny but not offensive (not as easy was you think—at least not for me) and when the moment finally arrived, I pushed my chair back and started to stand to begin my walk to the podium as the emcee said, “And now for our most prestIgious award, Agency Partner of the Year, please congratulate our winner, David Johnson (name changed to protect the innocent). I sat back down quietly. So yeah, this time we let Al win one. Which begs the question, would you rather be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond? It doesn’t get any smaller than Pizza-on-a-Stick in Sioux City. Although I did once go to Pizza Hut Corporate Headquarters in Topeka, Kansas circa 1998. I passed a restaurant which had a placard outside proudly announcing it was a “Topeka tradition since 1993.”

See you next week with the final insert of our three part pizza convention series followed by a whole new direction. Have a great weekend,

Andy and John