The Noid is an advertising character for Domino's Pizza created in the 1980s[1] by claymation artist Will Vinton, which has since been briefly revived several times. A mischievous rabbit-like creature in a skin-tight red bodysuit, he was portrayed as a perpetrator of many bizarre schemes designed to ruin the world's pizzas. Supposedly, only Domino's managed to, as the commercial's tagline went, "avoid the Noid". An odd hostage situation occurred when, on January 30th, 1989, a mentally unstable man named Kenneth Lamar Noid, believing the character was created to mock him, held a Domino's employee at gunpoint, demanding money, a getaway car, and a book. He was eventually arrested and spent three months in a mental health facility, but the character remained in use until 1995, when Kenneth Noid killed himself.[2] The Noid has appeared in media only very sporadically since.
History
The Noid was created in 1986 by an advertising agency called Group 243, which hired Will Vinton Studios to sketch the Noid and animate the advertisements[3][4]