Pizza Patrón’s Free Deal for Ordering a Pizza in Spanish? Una pizza, por favor

First of all, good for Pizza Patrón.

According to USA TODAY, the Dallas-based pizza franchise is running the following campaign on Tuesday June 5 from 5pm to 8pm: order in Spanish and get a free pepperoni pizza. According to the USA TODAY piece, "It can be broken Spanish. It can be first-time Spanish. But it has to be Spanish." Brilliant. In your face. We flipping love it.

But to others quoted in the USA Today article, this idea has its issues. Here is the first BUZZ KILL #1, Marcela Gómez of Hispanic Marketing Group. This is what she told USA TODAY:

"Maybe they thought it was a cute thing to do, but I think it's discrimination. As an advertising agency, I would never recommend this to my client."

Discrimination? Wha? For speaking in Spanish? You're kidding us. This is a free large pizza! We would speak in Martian if we had to. As for being an ad agency, well, there are other agencies who would tell their clients to do something like this (see below for the reason why), and good for them.

Anyway, here is BUZZ KILL #2, Peter Thomas, chairman of the Conservative Caucus, who pushes English as the nation's official language:

"It seems to punish people who can't speak Spanish, and I resent that. In public areas, people should be speaking English, and that includes pizza parlors."

Memo to Thomas: Really? People should be speaking English and English only in public areas? How insecure are you?

Want to know why Pizza Patrón is actually running the promo? It makes business sense. Wow. What a concept. More from USA TODAY:

But Andrew Gamm, brand director at Pizza Patrón, says it's all about creating a buzz within the brand's target market: Hispanics. He says 70% of its customer base is Spanish-speaking. "It makes perfect sense for us," Gamm says. "We're trying to make our bond with the Hispanic community stronger."

And for Gómez and Thomas, we will even help you with the order: Una pizza, por favor. Or better yet, Una pizza, or if you really want to keep it simple, just say "pizza" because "pizza" (or pizca) in Spanish is just like "pizza" in English. You guys all know that pizza is an Italian word, right?

See you on June 5th at Pizza Patrón.