The Noid is an advertising character for

Domino's Pizza Domino's Pizza, Inc., commonly referred to as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware General Corporation Law, Delaware-domiciled and headquartered ...

created in the 1980s and briefly revived several times. Clad in a red, skin-tight, rabbit-eared body suit with a black N inscribed in a white circle on his chest, the Noid is a physical manifestation of all the challenges in delivering a

pizza Pizza is an Italian cuisine, Italian, specifically Neapolitan cuisine, Neapolitan, dish typically consisting of a flat base of Leavening agent, leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high t ...

within 30 minutes. Though persistent, his efforts are repeatedly thwarted.

History

The Noid was created in 1986 by Group 243, the advertising agency of record for

. Group 243 hired

Will Vinton William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Academy Awards, Os ...

Studios to sketch the Noid and animate the advertisements using

claymation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

. Advertisements use the slogan "Avoid the Noid". His vocal effects were provided by Pons Maar. Most of the advertisements were narrated by

Andre Stojka Andre Stojka is an American voice actor. He is best known for his role as the voice of Owl in the Winnie-the-Pooh franchises starting with ''Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin'' inheriting the role from Hal Smith after h ...

. In 1988, a Saturday morning cartoon series called ''The Noids'' was planned by CBS, but was canceled amid complaints that it was merely an advertising ploy and not a show for children. As part of the advertising campaign, a computer game was released in 1989 called ''Avoid the Noid''. The object of the game is to deliver a pizza within a half-hour time limit in an apartment building swarming with Noids (some of which are armed with pizza-seeking missiles or water balloons). In 1990,

Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...

released a

platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

, ''

Yo! Noid ''Yo! Noid'', known in Japan as is a platform game, platform video game developed by Now Production and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was first released in Japan on March 16, 1990, and was localized in the U ...

'', for the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

, where the Noid was portrayed as a pizza-consuming hero instead.

Chamblee hostage incident

On January 30, 1989, Kenneth Lamar Noid, a mentally ill man who believed that the "Avoid the Noid" campaign was personally directed towards and was antagonizing him, entered a Domino's restaurant in

Chamblee, Georgia Chamblee ( ) is a city in northern DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, northeast of Atlanta. The population was 30,164 as of the 2020 census. History The area that would later become Chamblee was originally dairy farms. During the late n ...

. Armed with a .357 Magnum, Noid then held two employees hostage for over five hours. After ranting to the employees that the then-owner of Domino's,

Tom Monaghan Thomas Stephen Monaghan (born March 25, 1937) is an American entrepreneur and Philanthropy, philanthropist who founded Domino's Pizza in 1960. He also owns the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan, and owned the Det ...

, was fraudulent and had stolen his name, he first forced them to call the Domino's headquarters to demand $100,000 and a white limousine as getaway transportation for him. After offering to exchange a hostage for a copy of American

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

author

Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American writer, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson ...

's 1985 novel '' The Widow's Son'', Noid reneged on his offer when an officer brought him the book. Noid then became hungry and forced the captive employees to make him two pizzas; while Noid ate the pizzas with his gun in his lap, the hostages escaped. Noid surrendered to the police shortly after. Two shots were fired by Noid during the incident, both of them hitting the ceiling. Noid was charged with

kidnapping Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

aggravated Aggravation, in law, is "any circumstance attending the commission of a crime or tort which increases its guilt or enormity or adds to its injurious consequences, but which is above and beyond the essential constituents of the crime or tort itself" ...

assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

, and possession of a

firearm A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originate ...

during a crime. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Noid subsequently spent time in a mental institution, but died by suicide on February 23, 1995. This incident was widely believed to have caused Domino's Pizza to discontinue advertising using the Noid as their mascot, but this claim has been rejected by the company and their advertisers.

Revivals

Domino's made a limited run of 1,000 Noid T-shirts in December 2009. On May 4, 2011, the Noid was used as a promotional figure for the Facebook page of Domino's, and made a brief appearance as a stuffed toy at the end of a May 2011 advertisement promoting a one-topping pizza deal. The 25th birthday of the Noid was marked with the video game ''The Noid's Super Pizza Shootout'', a tribute to ''Avoid the Noid''. In June 2016, Spooky Pinball LLC announced the release of its new licensed pinball machine, ''Domino's Spectacular Pinball Adventure'' prominently featuring the Noid character. During 2016, the Noid appeared and was referenced in some Domino's commercials, as part of their USA "Pizza Payback" campaign. In August 2017, a fan-made sequel to ''Yo! Noid'' was created for the New Jam City 2017

game jam A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. The event duration usually ranges from 24 to 72 hours. Participants are generally program ...

called '' Yo! Noid 2: Enter the Void''. The Noid is briefly in the background of a 2017 Domino's advertisement. The Noid returned to television in April 2021 in a series of brief video advertisements on social media. Domino's officially confirmed the return of the Noid later in the month, and he was subsequently included in the mobile game '' Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!'' as part of a

tie-in A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, website, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original proper ...

promotion.

Cultural impact

In 2023, the video game ''

Pizza Tower ''Pizza Tower'' is a 2023 platform game created by the indie developer Tour De Pizza. It follows the pizza chef Peppino Spaghetti, who must scale a tower to prevent the destruction of his pizzeria. Across 20 side-scrolling levels, the player i ...

'' released, featuring a boss (and later, playable) character named "The Noise", whose appearance and behavior are based on the Noid. Designer McPig originally created the Noise as a villain suitable for a pizza-based game.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noid American mascots Cartoon mascots Claymation Domino's Pizza Fast food advertising characters Fictional humanoids Male characters in advertising Mascots introduced in 1986 Stop motion characters