“Hey, can I get a large pepperoni pizza, please? Also, kind of an odd question, do you guys deliver by drone? You do? Well, that’s just splendid!”
That’s more or less what happened with HBO. AdWeek reported the story on how HBO decided to celebrate the airing of the new season of Silicon Valley by delivering hundreds of pizzas to people who tweeted about ‘Sliceline.’ ‘Sliceline’ is a fake app idea featured in Silicon Valley that plays on the name ‘Priceline’. 714 pizzas were delivered in total and at least 40 of those pizzas were delivered via drones.
The future is now and it’s full of pizza, just like we all hoped it would be.
Silicon Valley is a comedy TV series that pokes fun at the ever-increasingly ridiculous world of tech and this led to HBO’s pizza-delivery stunt. The ‘Sliceline’ app parody was supposed to be aimed at finding the cheapest and quickest slices of pizza in your area. Building on this, the company Fooji worked with dozens and dozens of pizzerias to deliver a free pizza to anyone who tweeted a pizza emoji and the hashtag #Sliceline.
Fans were overwhelmed by the hilarious and kind gesture of HBO and their ‘Sliceline’ idea being brought to life.
Holy crap, I just got 🍕 delivered to my office from #Sliceline 😆😋 pic.twitter.com/D7Bimvt9Mi
— Parisa Tabriz (@laparisa) March 26, 2018
HBO’s stunt was even appreciated by the ‘competition’. Slice, a real app that focuses on finding good, local pizza, enjoyed Silicon Valley‘s gesture. It’s always nice when your jests are appreciated by the real thing!
While over 40 pizzas were successfully delivered via drone, it was only a matter of time before something went wrong. As it turns out, the technology isn’t quite up there with the demand just yet.
That's a wrap. RIP #Sliceline #dronefail (via @dansnierson) pic.twitter.com/kOkFTBdOZ5
— Silicon Valley (@SiliconHBO) March 27, 2018
While the reception to HBO’s drone-dropping pizza game was extremely positive, if there’s one lesson to be learned here, it’s that if you have a PR-event that involves free pizza, you better have stockpiles upon stockpiles of pizzas ready to go. It’s no joke when it comes to a free slice!
