Hollywood comes to Hollister for pizza commercial
Whenever Hollister is mentioned in the national media, it
typically has to do with bikers, earthquakes or the Abercrombie and
Fitch clothing line.
Recently, however, our humble town has gained attention for
being featured in a Domino’s Pizza television advertisement
promoting the company’s use of real ingredients.
Hollywood comes to Hollister for pizza commercial
Whenever Hollister is mentioned in the national media, it typically has to do with bikers, earthquakes or the Abercrombie and Fitch clothing line.
Recently, however, our humble town has gained attention for being featured in a Domino’s Pizza television advertisement promoting the company’s use of real ingredients.
I first saw it last weekend while watching football, which is pretty much the only time I’ll sit through commercials.
The 30-second spot begins with a white limousine with blacked-out windows driving on a rural road. The next scene shows four people – “Actual Domino’s Focus Groups” – sitting around a conference table while the announcer says, “A lot of people don’t think food companies are very honest about the source of their ingredients.”
The facilitator at the table then asks, “Do you think Domino’s wants you to know where their ingredients come from?” and “Do you deserve to know what they’re using?”
Right after a young lady says yes, the walls of the “office,” which is actually a set straight out of Hollywood, fall off to the side and the focus group realizes it is in the middle of a tomato farm … off Frazier Lake Road in San Benito County.
“Actually, we do want you to know,” the announcer says. “This is one of the farms where Domino’s gets the tomatoes for its sauce.”
The stunned participants are offered tomatoes right off the vine in the middle of the field as the announcer refers viewers to the pizza company’s behindthepizza.com website.
The commercial, which mentions “F&S Tomato Farm, Hollister, Ca” was shot in late September in a field near Bloomfield Road.
Patrick Fancher, the ‘F’ in F&S Farms, this week said the whole production “was fun.”
“They brought a full-blown production crew and it was an actual Hollywood production,” he said. “They spent less than a week setting it up and shot it in a day.”
He called the commercial and the surprised looks on the participants’ faces “totally legit.”
“The group they brought in got in a limo in Morgan Hill and was told they were going to another office,” he said. “They did not know where they were.”
Fancher said he first saw the commercial on ESPN a few weeks ago and has since received a number of calls from people asking if the commercial was for real.
“Everybody thinks it’s great,” he said. “They call and ask questions about the whole thing.”
You can barely see him, but local farmer Joe Tonascia make a brief appearance in the ad, as he is behind the wheel of a large tractor that is pulling two trailers full of tomatoes.
He confirmed the authenticity of the surprise of the focus group participants and had glowing reviews of the catered spread that the production crews offered.
F&S Farms works about 500 acres locally and sells to Morningstar Packing, which makes the tomato paste that is used in Domino’s pizza sauce.
Locally-grown tomatoes are also a key ingredient in pizza sauces used by other companies, according to Fancher.
“We supply a lot of tomatoes to San Benito Foods, which supplies Little Caesar’s,” he said.
Most people want to avoid commercials, but if you’re interested in checking out the Hollister reference in the Domino’s spot, search “Domino’s Tomato Farm Commercial” on YouTube.
During a check online earlier this week, a few apparently local viewers had commented on their town’s appearance in a national ad campaign:
“Hey, that’s my town,” wrote one person.
“Whoop Hollister is where I live,” said another.
“Hollisteaaah haha cool,” chimed in someone else.
We may be known for our ability to bale hay and our earthquakes and our motorcycles and the fact that we share a name with a line of clothing. But now we will perhaps add “Home of a key pizza ingredient” to our Chamber of Commerce promotional materials.
Adam Breen writes a blog at http://thebreenblog.blogspot.com and teaches newspaper and yearbook classes at San Benito High School. He is a reporter for The Pinnacle and former editor of the Free Lance.
