Your "feed" back needed. Hungry or Sick or Nothing; How does this make you feel?

[George Wright]

Hi Warriors,

I'm going to start selling advertising on my Pizza Review site and sites.

I have 4 target markets.

1. Pizza lovers who will be writing the reviews for me for their favorite Pizza Restaurants.
2. Pizzerias, restaurants, pizza parlours, etc. (Advertisers)
3. Frozen Pizza (cook at home) (Advertisers)
4. Food companies related to eating Pizza (Coca Cola, Pepsi, Budweiser, Olives, Pepperoni etc.) (Advertisers)

Question: My header on the page. Sick? Neutral? or Makes you hungry for Pizza?

At this point I'm in the "I can scrap the whole thing and start over" stage.

Here is the site with the header. www.TheBestPizzaInAmerica.com

Thanks,

George Wright

[Loren Woirhaye]

Your picture re-enforces the stereotype of pizza as
greasy.

I don't eat meat, so the pepperoni doesn't turn me on -
but the shape is catchy.

Interesting idea though.

Usually food looks awful in photographs. A pro food
photographer may be able to do something for you,
and here's a tip: when you see food in most advertising
it's made in model shops out of foam and paint. I have
friends in the business who make fake food for ads
here and there.

[Don Schenk]

Clever idea George, but at the risk of sounding gross or sickening it looks like, well uh how do I say this nicely? Someone became ill eating pizza and tossed their cookies - I mean tossed their pizza, and it landed in the shape of the USA.

How about the Italian colors of red, white, and green? Just brainstorming.

:-Don

[Jill Carpenter]

I like the pizza shaped like the US -

I don't like it on that blue background, and the yellow highlight around the black lettering is not turning me on.

Maybe add a crust on the coast line. You need some crust.

I'm on a 13.5 inch laptop screen, and that picture is almost all I see when I first hit the page. I think it might be too much for a banner.

[Fun to Write]

Uh, sorry George

but this image makes me sick.

I get the idea and it's clever and all, but . . .

just yuck.

Go with a traditional, delicious looking pizza pie and add some images of pizza restaurants (outside or inside), happy people eating pizza, etc.

Go to Google Images and get some ideas.

[JohnMcCabe]

Interesting idea, but that header is huge. Might be OK as a map with clickable hot spots matching your entries, though.

Loren is right, though. I'm a lifelong carnivore (well, omnivore) and that pizza looked greasy to me. You might do better with a graphic that looks more like a cartoon illustration, something more stylized.

Either that, or have your graphics guy put a layer over the pizza with a light opacity to kill the shine.

[Don Schenk]

Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye

Your picture re-enforces the stereotype of pizza as
greasy.

I don't eat meat, so the pepperoni doesn't turn me on -
but the shape is catchy.

Interesting idea though.

Usually food looks awful in photographs. A pro food
photographer may be able to do something for you,
and here's a tip: when you see food in most advertising
it's made in model shops out of foam and paint. I have
friends in the business who make fake food for ads
here and there.

I owned a photo studio for 38 years, and while I wasn't a food photographer, one of my friends is. You've seen his images on food packages all over the country.

The FTC requires the food in the food photos to be real food if the food is the product being sold. Supporting food can be props.

For example they use a mixture of Crisco and powdered sugar to make fake ice cream - it's the same suff that is in Oreo Cookies.

They can only use the fake ice cream if it is a supporting product with some other food - called the "hero" by the food industry. Fake ice cream is okay if the product is cake or pie. But the cake or pie must be real.

They are required to use real ice cream in the shot if ice cream is the product.

Here's a weird one... The food must be the same portion as that which is sold to the public, but they don't have to cook it! So, those thick, juicy hamburgers you see in the photos on the wall at Wendy's look soooo much thicker than the burger you just received from the kid cooking the burgers.

The burger in the photo is still FROZEN! They (his food stylist) sears the outside on a griddle and with a blow torch. That is why it looks sooooo good.

Wendy's - Quality is our Recipe

:-Don

[Nathan Alexander]

Well, weird. At first it looked kind of, uh, gross. But then I found myself wanting to eat it.

So what do I know?

But one thought is that the shape suggests "pizza stuff" thrown down and it happens to look like the USA - that seems different to me than "a pizza" if that makes any sense.

But again, I can seriously smell pizza now and I want it the more I look at it. (Back to my stupid cottage cheese)

[luckystepho]

Hi sorry but I have to agree with Don- my immediate reaction was that it looked like what we used to call a 'pavement pizza'- ie a pool of sick!

Good idea though, I think people are so used to seeing the traditional pizza shape ie round or pizza slices, and you may be safer to stick with this. Good luck!

[David Walker]

Personally, I love pizza but that image does not look appetising in the slightest and certainly does not convey the "best pizza in your city".

Sorry

David

[George Wright]

Thanks Everyone,

You must know I had/have doubts about that picture. that's why I asked. I will consider more comments if they come in, however your first reactions are what I was looking for. The last thing I want to do is make people "sick" of pizza.

Thanks much.
George Wright

[Scott Ames]

I don't really like the pizza USA. I agree with Loren, it looks greasy. If using a map of the US I would rather just see a real map.

[Scott Ames]

George..

This seems like a good idea for your site...A bit off the header topic, but I thought it was neat,

Pizza / Pizza Video

[Oxbloom]

I really don't like the contrast with the background color. The blue is the plastic color of some kind of cheap disposable table cloth or laminated plate like you'd find at a picnic or something...which gives the unwitting impression that the pizza discussed on the site will be cheap and second-rate, too.

Give me a pizza slice being pulled away from the pie, with rich, gooey cheese oozing down and connecting the two with mozzarella stringy goodness. Have this all happening in front of a black or dark-colored background to highlight and accentuate the rich, delicious colors of the pizza, and DAMN, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it...

[JohnMcCabe]

Originally Posted by Oxbloom

Give me a pizza slice being pulled away from the pie, with rich, gooey cheese oozing down and connecting the two with mozzarella stringy goodness. Have this all happening in front of a black or dark-colored background to highlight and accentuate the rich, delicious colors of the pizza, and DAMN, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it...

Damn you! Looks like I'm going out for lunch now...

[Ken Strong]

George, the fact that you offered "sick" as one of our choices shows that you already know the answer.

Like the site concept, don't like the graphic.