Domino's Pizza Once Tried To Develop A Children's Cartoon Based On Its Mascot, The Noid
Executives in charge of the world's biggest brands have made some massive misjudgments of what their customers want. A Kodak engineer invented the digital camera in 1975, but the company refused to develop it in an attempt to protect its film business, while Coke's experimentation with a new formula in 1985 was a notorious flop. Domino's Pizza followed that up with a gaffe of its own not long after.
In 1988, The New York Times reported that CBS was planning an animated children's cartoon featuring The Noid, a featured character in Domino's TV ads since 1986. Brought to life through the iconic claymation of Will Vinton and company, The Noid was a mischief-making cackling humanoid bent on destroying delivery pizzas, with the ad campaign promoting the chain's 30-minute delivery that would help customers "avoid the Noid."
Despite attempts by series development company TMS Entertainment to represent the show as delivering positive messages for kids, Congress and public advocacy groups saw it immediately for what it was; a show-length commercial for Domino's pizza. House of Representatives Telecommunications and Finance subcommittee aide Larry Rasky expressed that the committee "would be concerned that this is a continuation of the exploitation of children that currently exists on Saturday morning." TV industry lobbyist Peggy Charren of Action for Children's Television rightfully pegged the proposed show as "a commercial disguised as a program."
A cartoon was never made, but the Noid lived on elsewhere
"The Noid" cartoon would have been part of a wave of animated kids' shows with product tie-ins that crested in the late '80s following the Reagan administration's removal of such program restrictions. Shows such as "My Little Pony," "Rainbow Brite," and "Pound Puppies" were based on popular toy lines.
By the time CBS announced "The Noid," ratings for toy-based shows had cratered. Additionally, 1989 proved awful for both Domino's and its annoying mascot. That year, Jean Kinder of St. Louis was hit by a Domino's driver and later awarded $78 million, and a man named Kenneth Lamar Noid took employees hostage at a restaurant outside Atlanta claiming the company owed him money. Noid was charged with kidnapping and firearms offenses but found not guilty by reason of insanity; he died by suicide in 1995.
The Noid TV show and ad campaign had been scuttled by the time of the incident. In 2021, the character returned as part of a Crash Bandicoot game, and appeared in a commercial promoting autonomous delivery vans in the Houston area. In a press release Domino's VP of advertising Kate Trumbull explained, "The Noid is Domino's oldest and most famous villain, and the pizza delivery testing we're doing with Nuro's autonomous vehicle in Houston is exactly the kind of technology innovation that could provoke the Noid to return."
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