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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been kicking butt and cracking wise since their humble beginnings as comic book crusaders in 1983
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The Heroes in a Half Shell are about as synonymous with pizza as they are with Fighting the Shredder
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which led to some pretty memorable promotions with Pizza Hut, both old and recent
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Today, we're smashing rewind on our boomboxes to find out how the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mutated pizza sales
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Back in 1983, struggling artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were living in Northampton
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Massachusetts, trying to figure out an idea for the next big comic book. As a joke, Eastman
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doodled a turtle on its hind legs, dressed as a ninja, with nunchucks taped to its arms
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The drawing was expanded into four humanoid turtles with a backstory that mirrors the origin
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story of Marvel's Daredevil, where the same radioactive substance that blinds young Matt
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Murdock also mutates the four brothers and their rat sensei Splinter. So how did these subterranean monsters fall in love with the Zah? Well, it turns out the
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association came about because Eastman and Laird ate a ton of the stuff while working on their
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comics. Additionally, the head muckety-mucks at Playmates associated Pizza with their targeted
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demographic. Kids, the colorful and less brutal toon versions of the titular Turtles
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just could not get enough pizza with each episode featuring at least one slice of varying flavors By the time 1990 rolled around the Ninja Turtles fought their way onto the big screen with their very first live
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film. Part of the film's release included a partnership with deep-dish royalty Pizza Hut
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despite Domino's Pizza being featured in the film. Scandalous. The $20 million marketing campaign
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included a slew of commercials, printed ads, and even a TMNT VHS tape giveaway. The 1989
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cabinet version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Arcade Game was ported to the Nintendo
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Entertainment System in 1990 and given the title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 The Arcade Game
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Bundled with this home release were additional levels, enemies, and all the Pizza Hut product placement they could cram into 8-bits
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As new Turtle movies were released, including two from director Michael Bay and an animated
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adventure in 2023, Pizza Hut would continue to offer partnerships. In 2014, Pizza Hut commissioned
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special effects company Sin Labs to build a life-size version of the Pizza Shooter toy
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one of the most popular toys in the Turtles' original Playmates line. The pizzeria paired
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with the Turtles in 2021 for a mutagen green pizza sauce to celebrate a partnership with Viacom
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CBS, and again in 2022 to offer coupons for video game fans who bought a copy of Shredder's Revenge
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To promote the 2023 animated film Mutant Mayhem, Pizza Hut offered delivery to select New York City subway stations, just as the underground-dwelling turtles intended
