Competing pizza places always seem to have a pepperoni to pick with one another.

However, in recent advertisements printed in the Iowa State Daily, the businesses seem to be making comments that are slicing a little too deep. When Dominoes printed an ad congratulating Home Team on its “final anniversary” in the pizza industry, it started what appeared to be the beginning of an all-out pizza war.

Despite the negative tone of the ads, both parlors of the Italian pie claim the “war” is not to be taken seriously.

“That’s not a war, that’s just two businesses who have the same market. It’s just advertising. It’s whatever ads they want to run,” said Home Team pizza owner Dax Abbas.

“I think it’s kind of cool. It’s for the better since students are getting the better deal,” said Dominoes pizza day-time manager Kara Jacob.

Home Team doesn’t feel animosity towards Dominoes, but simply sees it as inevitable competition, Abbas said.

“I certainly don’t see it as a war. We’re just trying to give everybody a good pizza for a good deal,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s really negative. Everything is just competition. We don’t push it to the limit. It started a long time ago. The Home Team owner used to work for Dominoes,” Jacob said.

In what really comes down to a battle of the bucks, the students are ending up on the positive end of the situation, she said.

When one pizza place offers special deals, such as Home Team’s latest offer of a large pizza for $4.44, Dominoes still experiences an increase in sales and sometimes will even double up on staff when a good deal is going on, Jacob said.

“We do take a lot of their business since we accept them [competitor’s coupons,]” she said.

Home Team officials also said it came down to cash, and the students don’t really get caught up in the politics of the ads.

“Students are probably just happy to have the deal,” Abbas said.

Some students just order the kind of pizza they like the best, ignoring the promotions decorating the pages of the campus newspaper.

Jason Taylor, a junior in English, makes a call for the common student snack at least twice a week and doesn’t bother checking out the day-to-day deals.

“I like Dominoes because they take anybody’s coupons, and they have the best quality pizza,” he said.

While Dominoes has always been known for honoring all other coupons, one student found this only to be a half-truth.

In the fall when she called to order a pizza using another pizza place’s coupon, she was turned down since she was living in off-campus housing.

“They said they wouldn’t take competitors’ coupons from off-campus places,” said Emily Martini, a sophomore in exercise and sport science who lives in a home in west Ames.

After arguing the topic with the Dominoes representative on the phone briefly, he asked her if she wanted to hear its specials, she said.

“The ad says anywhere in Ames,” said Martini. “We’ve been boycotting them ever since.”

The restaurant has changed since the fall semester, Jacob said, and now is extending its offer to those students living off campus as long as the order is over five dollars.