`Pizza Eaters Have Their Rights!' Proclaim Round Table Revelers.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 1999--Round Table Pizza has launched its 40th anniversary by proclaiming the pizza eaters Bill of Rights. It also could be called a pizza love fest.

The proclamation of the "Round Table Pizza Bill of Rights" guarantees the pizza lover's "right to have fun" while eating Round Table pizza - and also acknowledges the pizza lover's most basic needs, like the right to high quality ingredients. The "Bill of Rights" gives every Round Table customer the right to be themselves and behave accordingly. Even if that isn't strictly by Miss Manner's book.

Says Round Table Franchise Corporation president Jim Fletcher, franchisor for Round Table Pizza, "We did in-depth research on the pizza customer and the pizza experience. We found that pizza eaters prize expressing their individuality in a warm, casual, unfettered environment. Pizza is a unique part of Americana with a tradition of bringing people together and our new campaign celebrates that tradition."

A new advertising campaign and a promotional program that includes in-store celebrations for the company's big 4-0, as well as a poetry contest and readings, will initiate the anniversary festivities to continue throughout the rest of the year.

Further revving up for action, Round Table recently announced a new franchise offering for Delivery/Carry-Out only pizza restaurants (DCUs). And the company is making plans to expand east from its nine-state West Coast base.

Round Table will be sponsoring activities throughout 1999 to celebrate the founding of the first Round Table restaurant in Menlo Park, Calif. 40 years ago. Forty thousand pizzas will be given away from March to May via "Instant Win" stickers placed on pizza boxes or handed to dine-in customers. Round Table also is inviting pizza lovers to enter a "Pizza Love Poem" contest; winning poets will feast on 40 free pizzas. School classes will participate in the poetry contest and Round Table will donate $1,000 to each of five winning schools in the company's marketing area.

In addition, Round Table restaurants will host 40th anniversary parties with themes ranging from "Back to the Fifties" to "Poetry Reading" celebrations.

The "Round Table Bill of Rights" -- which contains thirty-three separate articles -- is the foundation for the campaign developed by Wieden & Kennedy of Portland, Ore. The integrated campaign includes TV, radio and brand collateral. Five new television spots feature various animated characters celebrating the Bill of Rights. The characters were developed by Peter Bagge, a well-known underground cartoonist making his first foray into television animation.

The :15 launch spots, "Steam Dance" and "Rooster", began airing in regional markets on March 1. "Steam Dance" features article No. 7 of the Bill of Rights ("The right to size up your fourth slice while you're still working on your third") with "Mother" being seduced by steam rising from that fourth slice of pizza. In "Rooster", the sleepy title character is dramatically energized with a slice of pizza for breakfast, illustrating article No. 16 of the Bill of Rights.

Three other spots will be added to the rotation beginning April 1 and radio spots began airing March 1, as well.

The Round Table Pizza franchise system comprises more than 530 franchised and company-affiliated restaurants in the states of California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii. The first Round Table restaurant was founded in Menlo Park, California in 1959; franchise operations began in 1962. The Round Table Franchise Corporation, franchisor of Round Table Pizza, is based in Walnut Creek, California. Round Table System Sales in FY 1998 (July 1, 1997-June 30, 1998): 365 million dollars.

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