Pizza Hut backs off ‘sausage or pepperoni’ scheme

Pizza Hut is rethinking its contest daring people to ask “Sausage or Pepperoni?” at the presidential debate Tuesday. After the stunt triggered backlash last week, the company says it’s moving the promotion online, where a contestant will be randomly selected to win free pizza for life. The restaurant chain had originally offered the prize to anyone who posed the question to either President Barack Obama or Republican candidate Mitt Romney during the live Town Hall-style debate. But blogs and media outlets immediately took the pizza delivery chain to task for trying to capitalize on the election buzz by injecting itself into the process.  The chain was making an attempt, it appears, to capitalize on large viewership of this year’s debates.  Earlier this month, an estimated 67.2 million people watched the first debate between Obama and Romney. That made it the largest TV audience for a presidential debate since President George H.W. Bush, Governor Bill Clinton, and H. Ross Perot squared off in 1992, according to Nielsen’s ratings service.