What’s Pinocchio’s motivation in that pizza commercial?

Maybe it’s the drama school student in me, but I’m having trouble with the DiGorno pizza commercial that comes on all the time now. For those that haven’t seen it, Gipetto’s in his workshop with Pinocchio and he says something like, “Pinocchio if you tell one more lie you’ll never become a real boy.” Then Pinocchio presents a pizza and Gipetto says, “Which delivery is this?” Here’s where I’m troubled. Pinocchio stammers and says…”ummmm…it’s the one down the street…ya…the one we always order from…” and his nose gets big we learn it’s DiGorno pre-made pizza dough.

Why can’t Pinocchio tell the truth? What’s his motivation here? Why is he ashamed that he MADE a pizza? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Like it’d make sense if Pinocchio always made pizza for Gipetto and one night he ordered in because he was lazy and then Gipetto could be like, “Mmm this tastes a little different, how did you make it?” and then Pinocchio could stammer and be like, “Uhhh…I used canola oil instead of vegetable oil.” It could be a Pizza Hut commercial.

But it’s not a Pizza Hut commercial. It’s a DiGorno commercial and I think they’re going about things all wrong. Why do they associate their pizza with shame and lies? I do like the closing line though. Gipetto mutters: “I should’ve made a coffee table.”

4 thoughts on “What’s Pinocchio’s motivation in that pizza commercial?”

  1. I have the recipe for the crepe cake, and have been tempted to try my hand at making it (since I won’t be in NYC anytime soon). But hearing your review, I’m wondering if I can lower it on my list of priorities …

  2. If I am not mistaken DiGorno pizza is frozen while a pizzeria would hopefully be serving up their pie fresh. I think that’s point they’re trying to get across. While a home baked pizza is delicious it really takes no effort to pop a frozen one in the oven.

  3. J. Ryan O'Rourke

    Can’t you just think for once before you ask!? The DiGiorno Pizza company was NOT associating their product with lies and shame, it had a really good motivation on Pinocchio’s part. When Giapetto asked “who delivered” when he was astounded by how good the pizza looked and tasted, Pinocchio just lied by saying “I looked it up on book, I called your favorite place and they came right over” causing his nose to grow from the lies. Don’t you see, Pinocchio was lying to Giapetto about the pizza when he asked if it was delivered when in fact it was not delivery, it’s DiGiorno. DiGiorno is an Italian name and Pinocchio is an Italian story. Through this ad, DiGiorno as reconnecting with pizza’s Italian roots through Pinocchio and Giapetto.

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