FOOD NEWS
The Creepy Story Of Domino's 'Avoid the Noid' Slogan
By Lorien Crow
Content Warning
The following story contains discussions of mental health and suicide.
If you were near a TV or radio in the late 1980s, it was impossible to "Avoid the Noid,” the buck-toothed cartoon troll in a red rabbit suit who served as the mascot for Domino's Pizza in a popular ad campaign. This mascot known for making mischief inadvertently caused its own demise, in what Food & Wine called "the worst mascot public relations disaster in history."
Kenneth Lamar Noid felt that the Noid had been created by Domino's to mock him, and he brought a gun into an Atlanta Domino's, forcing two employees to make pizza while he negotiated with police surrounding the scene. Thankfully, both employees escaped unharmed, and Noid was apprehended and charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, and theft by extortion.
According to the Associated Press, experts described Kenneth Lamar Noid as “acutely psychotic,” while an officer on the scene said the man had “an ongoing feud in his mind with the owner of Domino's Pizza about the Noid commercials.” Ultimately, a preliminary court hearing ruled that Noid was innocent by reason of insanity, and he spent three months in a mental health institute obtaining treatment
Domino's continued to employ the Noid following the incident but nixed the red-suited rascal in 1995, after Kenneth Lamar Noid died by suicide. While the pizzeria chain is still successful, no mascot or ad campaign has since reached the highs or lows of the Noid.