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Your comment is proof that Domino's marketing team is pretty good. Hell, even the existence of this post on HN is basically some confirmation that hail corpora

• pavel_lishin 8y ago
  What are you on about? The person you're responding to isn't running out to get a Domino's tattoo; they're pointing out that there are places in America that are cash-strapped enough that they're willing to accept corporate sponsorship to provide basic government services.
  • fein 8y ago
    OP's comment is indicative of the exact demographic that is being targeted with this ad. Not only does the comment depict a complete lack of understanding of infrastructure in the US and the upkeep challenges, but it helps to magnify Domino's marketing by providing an effectively useless contribution to the discussion.
  • tzakrajs 8y ago
    No, they are fear mongering ("horrifying") because one is able to find cities that will accept handouts. Never mind the fact that these cities have no reputation to lose for accepting handouts. What is horrifying about this?
  • SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
    Maybe not cash-strapped. In my experience (I worked for local government for several years), road funding is always at the bottom of the political campaign list because it's one of those problems that is very easy to just kick down the road (no pun intended). In my jurisdiction, we wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars repaving the roads every 3 years or so with the cheap stuff instead of tearing up the road entirely and rebuilding it properly to last 20 years for only double the price of the 3 year repavement. So I see this from the perspective of allowing lazy politics to continue in these towns.
  • 8u23u0893290u 8y ago
    Perhaps they felt the OP was being earnest, and disabusing any notion that this is "real" when it's plainly a PR stunt America hasn't been "reduced to this" because it's not actually happening, except as a gag
  • ribs 8y ago
    The roads were shitty when I was a kid and they’re shitty now. No big apparent change to me.
    • untog 8y ago
      Anecdotes are not data
• tbirrell 8y ago
  You say this like they are trying to trick me out of my money. If something like this boosted the price of pizza significantly, then perhaps I might care, but it's likely that this came from their marketing budget, and if I have a choice between Domino's and an equivalent chain, I'll probably get Domino's because it will encourage them to put more money into their marketing budget, and thus into things that benefit me as well. Plus, if other business see this as being successful for Domino's it will encourage them to invest in similar projects.
  • fein 8y ago
    Why would you be buying chain pizza instead of putting money into your local mom n pop pizza shops? The best thing you can do to fix your infrastructure is invest in your own community.
    • tbirrell 8y ago
      Because its still cheaper and easier to get a pizza from Domino's at 3am than it is from a mom n pop.
      • nicoburns 8y ago
        Interesting, becauee here in the UK, pretty much every pizza place is cheaper than dominoes. The only advantage they have is they tend to be open more often.
        • jonknee 8y ago
          It's absurdly cheap in the US. Looking at their homepage a carryout large 3 topping pizza for $7.99 (about 6 pounds).
• cirgue 8y ago
  I don't whose ire you've drawn, but you're right. This is absolutely PR wank (albiet cheeky and well-executed). It's not like Dominos has a pile of cash big enough to make a serious dent in municipal infrastructure, but they do have a big enough pile of cash to make it to the front page of HN with a clever stunt.
  • gascan 8y ago
    My question is what's the core goal. Is the primary objective sales? Or is the primary objective shaming cities into actually funding their road maintenance budgets.
    • fein 8y ago
      The objective is sales. This is email address harvesting for marketing pushes. It's also corporate PR.
    • brosirmandude 8y ago
      >shaming cities into actually funding their road maintenance budgets This would be what I tell myself is a noble goal while working on this project. >Is the primary objective sales? Yes, but indirectly. Primary goal here is likely brand awareness and keeping the brand in the public consciousness for awhile. They want people who notice that that one nasty pothole on their way to work is fixed thinking "Huh, I wonder if Domino's paid for that to be fixed."
    • peatmoss 8y ago
      > shaming cities into actually funding their road maintenance budgets. This makes it sound as if there aren’t hard choices to be made and that budgets aren’t tight. Would you rather have smooth roads, clean water, or low taxes? Road maintenance is expensive, and tends to get deferred because of lack of funds or more important priorities. This means that road maintenance gets even more expensive. People then like to criticize the city for not fixing things when it would have been cheaper. We like the narrative that government is wasteful and stupid and has all the money it needs to maintain everything in the city. Sometimes it is lazy and stupid, but mostly (especially at the city level) it is not. When there isn’t money to do work, the government doesn’t do work—even if there’s work to do. Until we allow enslavement of government workers, this will continue.
• drivingmenuts 8y ago
  > Your comment is proof that Domino's marketing team is pretty good. No, not really - it's more an indicator of how a lot of people in the US (myself included) have no idea how our tax dollars are spent, if they are spent wisely and if we're even paying the right amount in the first place. Its our own damn fault, really. We let government slide on a lot of this stuff because we can't be arsed to demand accountability. If we do, then the first loudmouthed activist, polemicist or even vaguely interesting squirrel that wanders by captures our attention instead. Sometimes even the vicissitudes of daily life are too much of a distraction. I don't know that I'd consider this ad wankery or noble effort - at least someone is trying something. However, I'll deduct points for it being advertising. That stuff can burn in Hell.
• Thriptic 8y ago
  I don't think anyone believes the hype here. The parent was simply pointing out that it's pathetic that this marketing vector for Domino's is actually viable and value adding to some extent, and I agree with them.
• bobthepanda 8y ago
  It's not even noble. The corporatist, starve-the-beast strain of politician has succeeded in their goal. I'm not buying this marketing as good at all. This kind of marketing shouldn't even work, because we should be a first-rate nation that actually maintains the infrastructure.