Hell Pizza's chief executive says the franchise's latest campaign 'AfterLife Pay' is to "promote financial responsibility" and make a "stand against" buy now, pay later schemes.
On Thursday, Hell Pizza announced 'AfterLife Pay' where a selected number of customers are invited to sign a real amendment to their wills, allowing the cost of their pizza to be collected upon death. No interest or fees will apply, and the agreement is legally binding.
Hell Pizza chief executive Ben Cumming told Newshub the campaign signals "how we feel about the buy now, pay later schemes".
Cumming said Hell Pizza has been approached by a number of different companies that offer the schemes but told Newshub "it just never really sat well with us".
"It's sort of asking people to pay for what's usually considered to be a treat with an impulse buy that they can't necessarily afford with any financial means."
He said that taking on debt in the right circumstances is a "totally normal part of life" and comes with thorough assessments of the financial means and understanding of those seeking it, whereas buy now, pay later schemes don't.
"The industry is unregulated at the moment, so there's no affordability assessment carried out and getting approved for one of those schemes is supposedly a lot easier than with a credit card," Cumming said.
"It can lead to late fees and penalties, which puts people into a bit of a spiral of debt if they can't pay it back on time."
He said the 'AfterLife Pay' campaign is one step Hell Pizza is taking to "promote financial responsibility with our customers by making a stand against those schemes with our business".
While the promotion has only been live for a matter of hours, Cumming said it's had a lot of attention so far and is just a trial before any decision is made on its future.
"We might get completely inundated with people taking us up on this and it could be unfeasible for us to continue it for a long period of time."
Or he said people may just dip in and out of the promotion and it could go on for longer.
Cumming told Newshub the campaign had been brewing away for a couple of months before it was launched and required everyone from Hell Pizza's creative team to lawyers.
The trial of the campaign started on Thursday and ends June 17.
