The rise and fall of The Noid

Studio 360
A Domino’s commercial featuring The Noid.

In 1986, Domino’s Pizza unveiled a bold advertising mascot: a mischievous, rabbit-eared gremlin called The Noid. The character quickly became famous — he appeared on T-shirts, in video games and even in a Michael Jackson video — but through a bizarre series of unfortunate events, he became infamous, too.

Early sketches of The Noid.
Early sketches of The Noid.Ernie Perich

Ernie Perich (the creative director behind The Noid), Tim McIntyre (the vice president of communications at Domino’s) and Sean Burnsed tell the true — and not true — story of The Noid’s creation and demise.

Sketches of The Noid from Will Vinton Studios.
Sketches of The Noid from Will Vinton Studios.Ernie Perich

Music by Chill Carrier, Katona Twins and Podington Bear used under a Creative Commons license.

Are you with The World?

The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.

When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.