Tombstone has come a long way since its introduction at a small Wisconsin bar. But could it really become the official pizza of Halloween?
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00:00Tombstone?
00:01Has come a long way since its introduction at a small Wisconsin bar, but could it really
00:06become the official pizza of Halloween?
00:10Tombstone Pizza has been in business since 1962, and like many businesses, it's gone
00:15through multiple iterations.
00:17The frozen pizza company was started by brothers Joseph Simic and Ronald Simic.
00:21The two lived in Medford, Wisconsin, and were operating a bar called the Tombstone Tap.
00:26I'm your huckleberry.
00:32And why such a morbid name, you ask?
00:34The bar was located right outside a cemetery, because, well, something has to go next to
00:39a cemetery, right?
00:41Looking to increase revenue, the Simic brothers decided to start selling pizza.
00:46After an unfortunate accident, Joseph was left with a broken leg, giving him time to
00:50perfect the recipe.
00:52This resulted in pizza that raked in customers.
00:55People were taken with Tombstone Pizza, and business majorly increased.
00:59In just a few short years, the brothers were dishing out around 2,000 pizzas a day.
01:06Tombstone Pizza, originally sold as a bar snack, was selling remarkably well, and nearby
01:11restaurants started noticing.
01:13Looking to get their own slice of the pie, neighboring eateries purchased frozen pizza
01:18from Tombstone per Funding Universe, and by 1963, it was available all over the region.
01:25To get its pizza to hungry customers, Tombstone utilized what resources it had.
01:29As noted in the Tombstone story, the Simic brothers used their 1959 Cadillac as their
01:35delivery vehicle.
01:37This unique delivery method didn't last long, though, and by 1966, the brothers took out
01:42a loan for $5,600 to purchase a refrigerated truck for pizza delivery.
01:48Tombstone's growth happened quickly, and by the late 1960s, the company had built its
01:52own manufacturing plant to produce pizzas on a larger scale, according to Reference
01:57for Business.
01:58Within 15 years, the company had gone from homemade pizzas sold at a single location
02:03to a national operation with products appearing in both small and major retailers across the
02:09country.
02:10Though it operated for many years on its own, after surpassing $100 million in revenue,
02:16major food companies in the United States were interested in the Wisconsin-based pizza
02:21according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
02:24In 1986, just two years after hitting that major revenue mark, Tombstone Pizza was acquired
02:29by Kraft.
02:31Kraft did not retain ownership of Tombstone for too long and eventually sold the pizza
02:35brand to Nestle.
02:36The cost of both sales were left undisclosed, but judging by current data, purchasing Tombstone
02:41was good for both Kraft and Nestle, as frozen pizza is a multi-billion-dollar industry in
02:47the United States.
02:48What can we say?
02:49People love pizza.
02:51You can't deny the power of a good slogan, and for quite some time, Tombstone Pizza was
02:56known for just that.
02:57Customers associated Tombstone with good pizza, but they also recognized the uniqueness of
03:02its name, and the brand capitalized on that.
03:05For many years, Tombstone's slogan was the grim phrase,
03:09"'What do you want on your Tombstone?"
03:12It was stated in commercials that featured a man choosing toppings for his Tombstone
03:16pizza instead of a touching tribute to be inscribed on his epitaph.
03:21Though the slogan was catchy and loved by many, the company had an ad agency review
03:25the catchphrase to ensure it wasn't offensive, as did many brands in the early 1990s, per
03:30The New York Times.
03:32According to Ad Age, Tombstone ended up changing its slogan nearly a decade later, opting for
03:37the decidedly less macabre phrase,
03:39"'Shoulda had that Tombstone."
03:42When the company first introduced a tagline, though, it had nothing to do with death.
03:47Per Nestle, the pizza brand's first slogan was,
03:50"'The Italian Pizza with a Western Name.'"
03:53There are countless frozen pizza brands in circulation today, making it difficult to
03:57stand out in the field.
03:59But once upon a time, Tombstone was the top provider of frozen pizza in the country, according
04:04to Postcrescent.
04:06This didn't last, though, as other frozen pizza brands took the top spot.
04:10In 2017, per Statista, Tombstone's sister brand DiGiorno led sales in the United States,
04:16reaching over $1 billion in revenue.
04:19Tombstone comes in a total of 11 different options, including Five Cheese, Pepperoni,
04:24Four Meat, and Supreme.
04:25Its flavors are fairly unremarkable, with its most unique being Garlic Bread Pepperoni.
04:30Tombstone doesn't have a great nutritional value, either, with sodium reaching 570 milligrams
04:36for a Five Cheese pizza, and its cholesterol at 30 milligrams.
04:40And since, as Pew Research explains, more Americans are concerned with their health
04:44now than they were 20 years ago, that could account for the surge in other frozen pizza
04:49brands' popularity.
04:50Though, it's hard to say for certain.
04:53If you're one of the Americans who's more concerned about your health, rejoice, because
04:57your favorite frozen pizza may soon be a bit healthier.
05:01Tombstone's parent company, Nestle, has been working with the French company Nizo on a
05:05special project.
05:06The company, as told by Food Navigator in 2022, shared that it's been searching for
05:11a healthier cheese for its frozen pizza, and it just may have found it.
05:16Its item replicates Edam, a semi-hard Dutch cheese that's often used atop frozen pies.
05:22Nestle claims the taste of this new cheese product is the same as Edam, and that its
05:26behavior is almost undistinguishable.
05:29A Nizo employee shared,
05:30We successfully developed a fat-reduced cheese-making process that increased the moisture-slash-protein
05:36ratio to that of full-fat cheese.
05:38No word on the exact plans for this product, but a Nestle representative said,
05:43We will be visiting our vendors to share this new process openly, and look forward to transitioning
05:48to the fat-reduced cheese for our pizza ranges in Europe.
05:51If the product goes over well in Europe, perhaps it'll make its way across the Atlantic and
05:56onto our Tombstone pizzas in the United States.
06:00While consumers often get excited for limited-edition food items, these products are not always
06:05good, a fact Tombstone knows all too well.
06:08We appreciate a bold attempt at a unique flavor, but some simply flop, like Tombstone's Bratwurst
06:14and Diablo flavors.
06:15These pizzas appeared in 2015, and as one Nestle employee said,
06:20These bold and unique new flavors were created with fun in mind, so you can spend less time
06:24prepping your meal and more time enjoying it.
06:27Unsurprisingly, these two flavors did not make it past the limited-edition stage.
06:32Some of Tombstone's limited-edition attempts have been a little more fun and a lot less
06:36interesting.
06:37In 2012, to celebrate what we assume is Tombstone's favorite holiday, the brand re-released its
06:43Halloween pizzas.
06:45These products weren't uniquely flavored.
06:47Instead, they featured illustrations of spooky characters biting into pizza on their labels.
06:53The company also gave away coupons and other special items to lucky customers who interacted
06:57on the Tombstone Facebook page.
07:00In 2013, the company tried in earnest to become the official pizza of Halloween, and it used
07:06social media to do so.
07:08Tombstone employed Deep Focus, a digital marketing agency, to create chatter around the pizza
07:13maker in the month of October.
07:15The agency came up with Bites of Fright, a 31-day campaign in which Tombstone posted
07:20video shorts to various social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and the bygone
07:25Vine, all featuring some nod to the spooky holiday.
07:29Per the entry for a Shorty Award, Bites of Fright was a hit, and Tombstone's social engagement
07:34saw a major increase.
07:36The spooky season is still the busiest time of year for the pizza brand on social media.
07:40In 2022, the company posted 11 times on Instagram during the haunted holiday season.
07:46By comparison, Tombstone only posted twice in May and twice in August, leaving June and
07:52July completely dry by social media standards.