Domino's Pizza Is Reviving The Noid, Its Most Controversial Mascot

Domino's is one of the biggest pizza chains in the world. According to its website, the brand's outlets around the world produce around three million pizzas every single day, and there are over 17,000 shops in more than 90 countries. Impressive much? The brand's die-hard fans may be able to recall that Domino's once had a mascot in the late 1980s. According to Fast Company, this mascot was called the Noid and was popular for mysterious reasons.

Why? Well, for one, the Noid wasn't a looker, and was portrayed as a bad creature in the brand's commercials, determined to delay Domino's pizza delivery drivers. The commercials insisted that Domino's was "Noid-proof" and its staff members will always be able to deliver pizzas on time. While this was an unconventional mascot choice, Noid did manage to get fairly popular and even had video games dedicated to him. However, something went array later that made the brand rethink its marketing strategy.

According to the Washington Post, Noid got a bad name for real when a man brandishing a gun tried to take people hostage at a Domino's outlet in 1989. His name was Kenneth Lamar Noid and he believed that the commercials were created for him. He was said to be ″having an ongoing feud in his mind with the owner of Domino's Pizza about the 'Noid' commercials." Thankfully, as per Food & Wine, no one was injured and Noid (the person) was arrested. He was eventually declared to be mentally unwell and spent time at Georgia's Mental Health Institute. He later died by suicide as he remained troubled by his relentless thoughts on Noid. This is when Domino's decided to stop promoting the mascot in its pizza ads.

Last month, Domino's Pizza announced that it has decided to bring Noid back and promote the character as they test driverless technology with pizza deliveries. The Washington Post quotes Kate Trumbull, the brand's vice president of advertising: "The Noid is Domino's oldest and most famous villain, and the pizza delivery testing we're doing with Nuro's autonomous vehicle is exactly the kind of technology innovation that could provoke the Noid to return."

A Domino's staff member cracked a witty joke on a Reddit thread on Noid's comeback: "As a driver, I need the Noid to succeed at destroying the robot cars. We need work too."