Brand: Domino’s Pizza
Agency: Deutsch (NY)
Creative Director: Cheryl Van Ooyen
For a while there, any schmo could get a job at a dot-com. But now that that particular gravy train has derailed, the barely competent are left to work at … Domino’s. That seems to be the message of the pizza chain’s new campaign, which stars Bad Andy, a mischief-making puppet and Domino’s employee. In one spot, Andy offers a co-worker a rolling pin, defying the boss’s order not to use shortcuts because Domino’s policy is to hand-stretch pizza crust. (Tag line: bad andy. good pizza.) In another, he rearranges the letters on a signboard, changing it from today’s special: lg or med pizza, any crust to today’s special: big man trouserz. (Does Andy know something about why we shouldn’t eat Domino’s pizza?) In a third, he unplugs all the pizza-warming HeatWave Hot Bags so he can plug in a fan, two TVs, and a lava lamp. As it happens, Domino’s could use some heat – its same-store sales increased just 2 percent in the first quarter of 2000 – and if a dog-harassing sock puppet can raise the profile of a pet-supplies purveyor, why can’t a fuzzy brown layabout generate buzz for a pizza-maker? But Andy’s continued employment at Domino’s raises troubling questions: If he can prance around undetected long enough to unplug all the HeatWave Hot Bags, what’s keeping him from, say, licking the pepperoni or peeing in the tomato sauce? In other words, just how bad is Bad Andy? And does Domino’s liability insurance cover puppet sabotage?