Nice try: the pizza giant asks for divine blessing for its pineapple topping by going through the Holy Door of the Vatican.
Domino’s
With a PR stunt of a more original kind, Domino’s is washing its Pizza Waikiki – known in the rest of the world as Pizza Hawaii – clean. The walk through the Vatican’s Porta Santa is intended to rid its controversial topping of sin.
The Hawaiian pizza, topped with pineapple slices, is the most controversial dough dish in the world. In the motherland of pizza, the version with pineapple slices is frowned upon, to say the least.
At Domino’s Pizza, the version is called Waikiki: An employee of the take-away giant made his way to the Vatican with a steaming slice. His goal: forgiveness for the dough patty, which is not only considered a culinary sin in the holy city of Rome.
In the holy year 2025, all five doors of the Holy See are open. One of them is the Porta Santa. Those who pass through it will pass from sin to grace, writes the Vatican on its website.
Request for forgiveness
Domino’s has seized this opportunity. “We know that pineapple on pizza polarizes people all over the world and is almost considered a culinary sin in Italy, the home of pizza,” says Matthias Maier, Chief Marketing Officer of Domino’s Pizza Germany. “By crossing the Holy Door with our Waikiki, we want to ask for forgiveness with a wink and show that taste is also a question of tolerance.”
It is doubtful that this will be enough to make Hawaiian pizza, or Waikiki, acceptable. The Holy See writes that only those pilgrims who do so “with sincere intentions of spiritual conversion and renewal” will have their sins forgiven when walking through the Porta Santa. In addition, the person must receive the sacrament of confession shortly before or afterwards.
Even pizza purists are unlikely to be impressed by the pastry’s pilgrimage. At least that’s what the initial reactions in the blue News editorial team have already shown.