Dr. Oetker is banking on the basic human instinct of always saying yes to free pizza with a pop-up designed to promote its new desert product.

The brand is extending one of its frozen pizza brands into the desert category with an oven-warmed, chocolate-covered pie called Ristorante Cioccolato. To get the word out, the company worked with its strategic and creative agency John St., alongside media agency Initiative, experiential shop Launch and public relations firm Fleishman Hillard on a pizzeria that is, at first glance, made entirely of chocolate. In fact, much of it actually is made of the sweet stuff.

Timed to coincide with Valentine’s Day, the venue is open in Toronto’s trendy Queen Street West neighbourhood, giving away free samples between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m until Feb. 14. Positioned as other Ristorante products are as authentically Italian and a little bit fancy, samples come with a complementary glass of Prosecco. And amid the chocolate pizza oven and chocolate chandelier is an (artificially created) diamond made of chocolate. For real.

“When you overcook a chocolate pizza, it becomes carbon, and if you crush that under 60,000 atmospheres at a temperature of 3,000 degrees, three months later you have a half-carat diamond,” said Peter Macdonald, executive head of marketing at Dr. Oetker Canada.

The brand has just put the finishing touches on a TV spot, and has readied OOH work as well to point to the new product alongside other Ristorante pizzas in the freezer aisle.

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