Domino's videographer also a sex offender

Domino's really can't catch a break with that "snot in the sandwiches" video incident. First came the initial outcry over the vile video clip, then the hand-wringing about whether the company should respond, then the public apology, then the equally public arrest of the employees. Now, it turns out the woman behind the camera is, according to The Smoking Gun, "a registered sex offender who last year pleaded guilty to engaging in an illicit act with a 14-year-old girl." So, when Domino's president Patrick Doyle says, "We are re-examining all of our hiring practices to make sure people like this don't make into our stores," let's all breathe a sigh of relief that the application process will now thoroughly weed out disgusting, exhibitionistic sex offenders with no common sense whatsoever.

—Posted by David Griner

Published on April 17, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Controversy, Domino's, Griner

Domino's set to take a social-media beating

These are wonderful times for social-media outrages. Some come like a bolt out of the blue, like the Motrin Moms fiasco. (For the life of me, I can't see what the hysteria was about. Sorry, mommy-blogging elite.) Others, like the Amazon glitch/conspiracy to remove the sales ranks of gay-themed books, are ripe for the fury of social-media channels like Twitter. And now we have Domino's. Let's face it, everyone worries what goes on behind the scenes at fast-food places. Some Domino's employees posted a video yesterday that apparently shows one of them putting snot on a sandwich and generally acting gross around food. (My favorite move, if only for its unconventional approach, the farting on the salami.) The video includes the narration, "That's how we roll at Domino's." (Maybe that's an homage to the Agency.com Subway pitch video.) The original was removed, but a copy is still on YouTube. This is not Abu Ghraib, but it's sure to strike a chord. How long before this bounces around Twitter and blogs before The New York Times weighs in with a chin-scratching 1,500-word article a week later? What's Crispin Porter + Bogusky's response? Some more "taste stimulus" ads may not counteract the cheese-up-the-nose scene.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on April 14, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (15)
Filed under Controversy, Crispin Porter, Domino's, Gross, Morrissey

Phantom promo costs Domino's 11,000 pies

Clever viral-marketing hoax or simple accident? On March 30, Domino's franchisees were hit with 11,000 orders overnight as part of a free medium-pie promotion that didn't even exist. Or so they thought. Turns out in December, Crispin Porter + Bogusky devised an online promotion using the password "bailout." It never got the green light from corporate, but no one went back and disabled the code, says Domino's rep Tim McIntyre. Three months later, he says, a consumer, tinkering with Domino's online ordering, "randomly" typed in the word and triggered the free coupon. That happened late this past Monday night. By the time store owners opened Tuesday, their computers were "dinging" with orders. More than half of the 5,000 U.S. stores had at least one redemption. Based on the volume of orders at two particular stores, the company thinks the whole thing started at a college near either Cincinnati or Salt Lake City. Soon, value blogs picked it up, the run on free pizzas spread. The company, which is reimbursing franchisees for the cost of food, disabled the promotion at 11:30 a.m. on March 31, the day before April Fool's Day. "That was just a quirk of timing. This isn't a hoax, scam or hacker. It's an honest-to-goodness mistake," insists McIntyre. But he admits it's "reinforced to us the power of viral marketing and the power of the word 'free' with 'pizza.' " And in these grim times, it proved cathartic for consumers: "When word got around and people found out that it was a mistaken free promotion, they liked it even more," he says. "People liked it because they felt, 'We just stuck it to the man.' "

—Posted by Noreen O'Leary

Published on April 3, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Crispin Porter, Domino's, O'Leary

Crispin Porter returns to the well once again

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is the agency many of its peers love to hate. Some of the criticism is silly and seems to stem from the fact that it's very successful, that it gets sometimes embarrassingly positive press coverage, and that Alex has great hair. Other times it strikes closer to home. One critique that seems valid is CP+B recycles the same concepts over and over, like the reality TV shtick. It's back at it again with Domino's spots that feature a "Secretary of Taste" promising a "taste stimulus package." That conceit seems awfully familiar. Rewind a year and a half, to when CP+B rolled out the "Commissioner of the More Taste League" for Miller Lite. I say if it works, keep at it, although don't expect points for originality.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on March 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (11)
Filed under Crispin Porter, Domino's, Morrissey