Domino's Pizza's 1980s mascot, The Noid, was an obnoxious character that did everything in its power to delay pizza deliveries. It was a huge success for the company. But Domino's decided to get rid of The Noid after a pistol-wielding man named Kenneth Lamar Noid took over one of its restaurants in January 1989:
A police officer on the scene later revealed that Noid had “an ongoing feud in his mind with the owner of Domino’s Pizza about the Noid commercials,” and thought the advertisements had specifically made fun of him. A headline the following morning in the Boca Raton News sparked a talk show frenzy: “Domino’s Hostages Couldn’t Avoid the Noid This Time.”
Noid was found innocent by reason of insanity and spent three months in a mental institution. But he never shook the idea that Domino's Noid campaign was intentionally created to harass him and he committed suicide in 1995. Domino's dropped The Noid soon after.
