Domino's Original Mascot "The Noid" Was Discontinued for a Disturbing and Tragic Reason

Content warning: This article mentions suicide.

Between the years 1986 and 1995, you couldn't escape the Noid. The bizarre, bunny-eared claymation Domino's mascot was everywhere, from TV ads to video games, and he was created to represent the annoying (hence the name "Noid") obstacles a delivery driver faced when trying to get your pizza to you in 30 minutes or less, a new Domino's policy at the time.

The company soon adopted the slogan "Avoid the Noid," and even released a video game by the same name in which players would avoid hordes of "Noids" to quickly deliver a pizza. According to the ads, the Noid was responsible for "cold pizza, squashed pizza, and pizza that just wasn't quite right" upon delivery.

However, while most found the mascot silly and overused, one man was so bothered by it that he ended up taking his own life. Let's take a look.

Though the Noid was created to ruin pizzas, the creepy character ended up ruining someone's life.

In 1989, after three years of seeing the mascot on TV, in stores, in games, on billboards, and more, a 22-year-old man named Kenneth Lamar Noid entered a Domino's in Chamblee, Ga. with the intent to inflict harm on the workers there. In a now-archived LA Times article, the outlet reported that he ended up holding two employees hostage at gunpoint for over five hours. They were able to escape while Kenneth ordered and ate a pizza from the shop.

Reportedly, the man believed that the Domino's ads, and the Noid character specifically, were created to mock him. "He thinks Tom S. Monaghan, owner of the Detroit-based pizza chain, comes in his apartment and looks around," said Police Chief Reed Miller at the time.

Detectives believed that Kenneth had an "ongoing feud" in his mind with the owner of the chain: "He thinks [the ads are] aimed at him."

While Kenneth eventually surrendered, that sadly wasn't the end of his story. Following the incident, Domino's continued to utilize the mascot in their advertisements and branding. The company's persistence proved to be too much for Kenneth, who had been found not guilty of his crimes by reason of insanity and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Six years later, in 1995, Kenneth Noid died by suicide in his Florida apartment after remaining convinced that Domino's was targeting him. His death also spelled a tragic end for the Noid, as Domino's decided to swiftly terminate the campaign and the character altogether.

However, the Noid did briefly return to the small screen during Domino's 25th anniversary in a surprising 2021 ad, as well as a short-lived video game feature in Crash Bandicoot: On the Run. Per their official press release, "Maybe it was the chaos of 2020 that gave the Noid the confidence to return, or possibly the fact that Domino's has continued to innovate around great pizza delivery with amazing technology."

Since then, though, the once-omnipresent mascot has faded into obscurity and lives on only as a devastating and disturbing tale.