In the 1980s, the Noid was inescapable. Domino’s Pizza flooded the market with commercials and toys of their obnoxious mascot whose antics bolstered Domino’s famous promise to deliver pizza within 30 minutes or it’s free. The Noid was so popular that rival pizza chain, Pizza Hut, declared “war” on its arch-competitor and earmarked $75 million to promote its new pizza delivery service.
The Noid was created by claymation artist Will Vinton, whose California Raisins had skyrocketed him to fame, and the weird bunny-eared, red-suited gnome was designed to depict the challenges of delivering a fresh pizza in 30 minutes. The Noid — whose name was a shortened version of “annoyed” — debuted in 1986 and became an instant hit with pizza lovers, and “Avoid the Noid” became Domino’s catch phrase. Over the next three years, Noid t-shirts were everywhere, he was the star of a video game, and the villainous irritant even appeared in Michael Jackson’s film “Moonwalker.”
As fate would have it, the Noid’s slide into obscurity began at a bizarre hostage stand-off on January 30, 1989. Twenty-two-year-old Kenneth Lamar Noid burst into a Domino’s in northeast Atlanta, brandishing a gun and taking two employees hostage. Noid was holding a grudge against the mascot, which he believed Domino’s owner Tom Monaghan had created to personally mock him. He demanded $100,000, a getaway car, and a novel about the Freemasons, but he also ordered one of the hostages — pizzamaker Sean Burnsed — to telephone Monaghan so he could air his griefs.
The Noid becomes a public relations disaster
Burnsed called the Domino’s hotline, but the employee who answered didn’t take his request seriously, until Noid shot his gun twice at the ceiling. Noid threatened to kill Burnsed if the police showed up. Monaghan was alerted to the hostage crisis and offered his private plane to fly in and evacuate the hostages. Police officers arrived with the book Noid had requested, but he still wouldn’t allow them inside. Burnsed decided to keep Noid calm by making him a meat-and-veggie-heavy ExtravaganZZa pizza, but Noid refused to allow Burnsed to cut the pizza since he believed the pizza cutter could be brandished as a weapon. Noid eventually relented and let an officer inside, and when the door was open, Burnsed escaped. After a five-hour stand-off, Noid was subdued, arrested, and charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, and theft by extortion. He was found innocent by reason of insanity and spent three months in the Georgia Mental Health Institute.
Meanwhile, Domino’s continued using the Noid in commercials, until 1995 when the person Noid — still paranoid that Domino’s was out to humiliate him — committed suicide in his Florida apartment. With this public relations catastrophe, Domino’s finally gave the axe to the Noid. The Noid briefly returned in promotions for a Facebook game in 2011 and then again in 2021 when Domino’s was testing robotic delivery cars, but since then, the Noid — unlike other beloved food mascots — is nowhere to be found.
