5 ms·

Domino's Uses Pizza-Smelling Thermal Ink on Rented DVDs [video]

101 points by azov 13y ago

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
nivla 13y ago
Wow this is like the next gen of subliminal advertisement and a clever one indeed. Drop in an ad at the beginning of the movie and when the smell starts to release and your cravings for food go up, guess which product and company your subconscious mind is going to pick?
- deleted 13y ago
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  - deleted 13y ago
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KhalilK 13y ago
Thermal inkjet: making shit look cool since 1957.
onuryavuz 13y ago
As far as I understand, when you rent the DVD, you have no idea about the thermal ink or the campaign. In the middle of the movie, you are starting to smell pizza scent(creepy). At some point, you are starting to think you have an extreme urge to eat pizza and then deciding to order one. At the end of the movie, you discard the DVD from the player and you will see, everything was a lie and you are cheated. One of the weirdest marketing campaign I have ever heard of.
- deletes 13y ago
  Is that even legal. Basically you are shown an advertisement during the whole length of the movie.
- judk 13y ago
  Or you assume that someone spilled pizza on the DVD and you are angry at the vendor for providing a dirty dvd
- qbrass 13y ago
  Just be glad that the advertising is for pizza and not diapers.
eli 13y ago
This is from 6 months ago... Did they ever actually do it, or was it just a stunt.
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  Sounds like an ad concept from an ad agency.
  - alex_doom 13y ago
    Most likely an agency concept to win new business. Most pitch ideas are just clever things that never get produced.
- ffk 13y ago
  I recall hearing about this around 2-3 years ago. Unfortunately, I am unable to find the source.
- IE5point5 13y ago
  Pretty much every time theres something like this on a blog, e.g "Sony sells waterproof walkman in bottles of water at gym" (that went round last week) it's just a 1 off stunt from an agency that at best that made 1 of or at worst is just smoke+mirrors and a press release
tedkalaw 13y ago
This sounds very similar to something that Hideo Kojima mentioned wanting to do for a PC game: "So maybe when you put it [the game] in your disk drive and you're playing for about fifteen minutes, the heat from the disk drive interacts with that chemical and creates a certain smell. It smells like blood or something like that," he said through a translator. "And when you pull it out you see like a dying message on the disk. That was actually an idea I had for the original Snatcher but unfortunately I got yelled at for it and they didn't let me do it." http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/16/hideo-kojima-recalls-snatchers-heat-activated-disk-what/ http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/16/hideo-kojima-recalls-snatc...
- mathattack 13y ago
  "I got yelled at for it and they didn't let me do it." Sounds like banking corporate culture. :-)
nreece 13y ago
More (such) instances of subliminal messaging: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instances_of_subliminal_messages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instances_of_subliminal_message... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_messages_in_popular_culture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_messages_in_popular_...
- thejosh 13y ago
  There is subliminal messaging then there is marketing that slaps you in the face.
  - DrStalker 13y ago
    Superliminal.
  - maccard 13y ago
    Maybe it would be more subtle if they didn't change the face of the DVD and subtly let you go "Hey, do you smell pizza" to whoever else is in the room?
kimonos 13y ago
Hmmmm, pretty interesting and clever marketing technique!
sciguy77 13y ago
Isn't subliminal message marketing illegal now? I remember a hubbub about Pepsi a while back http://globalelitetv.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/pepsi_sex.jpg http://globalelitetv.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/pepsi_sex.j...
- Stormcaller 13y ago
  Why would pepsi cans spell "sex" tho.? What would they gain from it? If I were going to print subliminal message on pepsi cans they would read "buy pepsi" or "drink pepsi", not "sex".
  - boomlinde 13y ago
    "Sell pepsi" seems kind of obvious. Sex makes it look like a more attractive deal, even though it's pepsi they're selling in the end. This has been going on for a long time in all kinds of marketing; instead of painting the factual benefits of a product you try to communicate a feeling or a sort of achievement you want to associate the product with. Seems to work.
vezzy-fnord 13y ago
The BBC are gonna call dibs on this one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-O-Vision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-O-Vision
duhballs 13y ago
kill me now.
Pitarou 13y ago
Warning to all females experiencing nausea gravidarum (morning sickness), and their cohabitants: be VERY careful about where you rent your DVDs from. Or, at the very least, keep a bucket to hand.
- lostlogin 13y ago
  Be careful period - The continual vomitting from dawn till dusk caused me to leave the lights off to let my wife rest while I got dressed one AM. I bent over, eye butted the cupboard door, broke my lower orbital floor and bled into my sinus for about 2 weeks. I was 100% sure at the time that I popped my eyeball. Luckily I was wrong.
michaelchum 13y ago
Wow, ingenious! This is cool, but will my DVD cover go back to Argo once it cools down? If not...all the DVD covers will be pizzas.. We won't be able to differentiate them anymore.
brianbreslin 13y ago
I love this idea. Could totally see redbox pulling something like this and including a coupon for dominos in the sleeve. I wonder how strong the scent really is.
tantalor 13y ago
"Pizza-smelling thermal ink" is ink that smells pizza. Which didn't make sense to me until I watched the video and found they meant to say, "Pizza-scented thermal ink", which is ink that smells like pizza.
- conroe64 13y ago
  I was thinking the same thing, and concluded the ink changes color or something in the presence of pizza. Not that far fetched actually and would have been a lot cooler.
  - amagumori 13y ago
    not that far fetched? if you made an ink uniquely sensitive to the volatile aromatic compounds in hot pizza there'd be a domino's box on the front cover of Nature
- awiesenhofer 13y ago
  as a non-native english speaker, let me say "thank you!" for pointing out the difference. On a different note: Even I know you probably wouldn't order at Dominos if you suddenly got an urge for _pizza_.
reddog 13y ago
Based on the last pizza I got from Dominos, the DVD might taste better.
enscr 13y ago
That's far too invasive. - I could be allergic to certain smells. - With traditional ads, I can cover my ears/eyes or turn away the channel, turn down the volume. All that's not easy with the nose. - The smell persists beyond your control. - Last but not the least, I don't think anyone would want ads for metamucil or norit...

101 points by azov 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

nivla 13y ago

Wow this is like the next gen of subliminal advertisement and a clever one indeed. Drop in an ad at the beginning of the movie and when the smell starts to release and your cravings for food go up, guess which product and company your subconscious mind is going to pick?

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

KhalilK 13y ago

Thermal inkjet: making shit look cool since 1957.

onuryavuz 13y ago

As far as I understand, when you rent the DVD, you have no idea about the thermal ink or the campaign. In the middle of the movie, you are starting to smell pizza scent(creepy). At some point, you are starting to think you have an extreme urge to eat pizza and then deciding to order one. At the end of the movie, you discard the DVD from the player and you will see, everything was a lie and you are cheated. One of the weirdest marketing campaign I have ever heard of.

deletes 13y ago
Is that even legal. Basically you are shown an advertisement during the whole length of the movie.
judk 13y ago
Or you assume that someone spilled pizza on the DVD and you are angry at the vendor for providing a dirty dvd
qbrass 13y ago
Just be glad that the advertising is for pizza and not diapers.

eli 13y ago

This is from 6 months ago... Did they ever actually do it, or was it just a stunt.

anigbrowl 13y ago
Sounds like an ad concept from an ad agency.
- alex_doom 13y ago
  Most likely an agency concept to win new business. Most pitch ideas are just clever things that never get produced.
ffk 13y ago
I recall hearing about this around 2-3 years ago. Unfortunately, I am unable to find the source.
IE5point5 13y ago
Pretty much every time theres something like this on a blog, e.g "Sony sells waterproof walkman in bottles of water at gym" (that went round last week) it's just a 1 off stunt from an agency that at best that made 1 of or at worst is just smoke+mirrors and a press release

tedkalaw 13y ago

This sounds very similar to something that Hideo Kojima mentioned wanting to do for a PC game: "So maybe when you put it [the game] in your disk drive and you're playing for about fifteen minutes, the heat from the disk drive interacts with that chemical and creates a certain smell. It smells like blood or something like that," he said through a translator. "And when you pull it out you see like a dying message on the disk. That was actually an idea I had for the original Snatcher but unfortunately I got yelled at for it and they didn't let me do it." http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/16/hideo-kojima-recalls-snatchers-heat-activated-disk-what/ http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/16/hideo-kojima-recalls-snatc...

mathattack 13y ago
"I got yelled at for it and they didn't let me do it." Sounds like banking corporate culture. :-)

nreece 13y ago

More (such) instances of subliminal messaging: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instances_of_subliminal_messages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instances_of_subliminal_message... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_messages_in_popular_culture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_messages_in_popular_...

thejosh 13y ago
There is subliminal messaging then there is marketing that slaps you in the face.
- DrStalker 13y ago
  Superliminal.
- maccard 13y ago
  Maybe it would be more subtle if they didn't change the face of the DVD and subtly let you go "Hey, do you smell pizza" to whoever else is in the room?

kimonos 13y ago

Hmmmm, pretty interesting and clever marketing technique!

sciguy77 13y ago

Isn't subliminal message marketing illegal now? I remember a hubbub about Pepsi a while back http://globalelitetv.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/pepsi_sex.jpg http://globalelitetv.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/pepsi_sex.j...

Stormcaller 13y ago
Why would pepsi cans spell "sex" tho.? What would they gain from it? If I were going to print subliminal message on pepsi cans they would read "buy pepsi" or "drink pepsi", not "sex".
- boomlinde 13y ago
  "Sell pepsi" seems kind of obvious. Sex makes it look like a more attractive deal, even though it's pepsi they're selling in the end. This has been going on for a long time in all kinds of marketing; instead of painting the factual benefits of a product you try to communicate a feeling or a sort of achievement you want to associate the product with. Seems to work.

vezzy-fnord 13y ago

The BBC are gonna call dibs on this one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-O-Vision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-O-Vision

duhballs 13y ago

kill me now.

Pitarou 13y ago

Warning to all females experiencing nausea gravidarum (morning sickness), and their cohabitants: be VERY careful about where you rent your DVDs from. Or, at the very least, keep a bucket to hand.

lostlogin 13y ago
Be careful period - The continual vomitting from dawn till dusk caused me to leave the lights off to let my wife rest while I got dressed one AM. I bent over, eye butted the cupboard door, broke my lower orbital floor and bled into my sinus for about 2 weeks. I was 100% sure at the time that I popped my eyeball. Luckily I was wrong.

michaelchum 13y ago

Wow, ingenious! This is cool, but will my DVD cover go back to Argo once it cools down? If not...all the DVD covers will be pizzas.. We won't be able to differentiate them anymore.

brianbreslin 13y ago

I love this idea. Could totally see redbox pulling something like this and including a coupon for dominos in the sleeve. I wonder how strong the scent really is.

tantalor 13y ago

"Pizza-smelling thermal ink" is ink that smells pizza. Which didn't make sense to me until I watched the video and found they meant to say, "Pizza-scented thermal ink", which is ink that smells like pizza.

conroe64 13y ago
I was thinking the same thing, and concluded the ink changes color or something in the presence of pizza. Not that far fetched actually and would have been a lot cooler.
- amagumori 13y ago
  not that far fetched? if you made an ink uniquely sensitive to the volatile aromatic compounds in hot pizza there'd be a domino's box on the front cover of Nature
awiesenhofer 13y ago
as a non-native english speaker, let me say "thank you!" for pointing out the difference. On a different note: Even I know you probably wouldn't order at Dominos if you suddenly got an urge for _pizza_.

reddog 13y ago

Based on the last pizza I got from Dominos, the DVD might taste better.

enscr 13y ago

That's far too invasive. - I could be allergic to certain smells. - With traditional ads, I can cover my ears/eyes or turn away the channel, turn down the volume. All that's not easy with the nose. - The smell persists beyond your control. - Last but not the least, I don't think anyone would want ads for metamucil or norit...