Why Domino’s Pizza Was Ready to Give Free Pizza for 100 Years

Domino’s Pizza’s viral marketing campaign that backfired pretty quickly

Pizza — it’s irresistible, but it’s not free. But what if someone told you could get 100 free pizzas every year for 100 years if you tattooed yourself with a Domino’s Pizza’s logo?

For most of us, that’s a hard choice. But it wasn’t that hard of a choice for hundreds of people in Russia who started putting photos of themselves tattooed with the brand’s logo for free food.

The Campaign

Domino’s Pizza launched a marketing campaign in Russia where people could get 100 free pizzas for 100 years if they tattooed themselves with the brand’s logo and posted those pictures on social media with the hashtag #DominosForver.

To their surprise, there was quickly an abundance of photos of people with the brand’s tattoo on Facebook, Instagram, and VKontakte (a Russian social media platform). I wonder what they expected. They should have expected people to react this way. Here are some of those pictures posted by people:

Domino’s Pizza clarified that only the first 350 people to post the tattooed images would get the free pizzas. The tattoos were also required to be at least 2 cm in length, and had to be in “visible parts of the body.”

But it was too late already, and people didn’t stop posting such pictures. They kept coming non-stop. Even after the number of participants was well over 350, people still kept posting pictures on social media.

It then had to post an urgent message for people who were going to get the tattoos. The message was:

"An urgent message to all those sitting at the tattoo artist’s right now: We’ll include you in the list of participants, but we’re waiting for photos up to midday today."

This campaign had been planned to be run for two months, but due to the overwhelming participation of people, it had to be ended in just 5 days.

Something Special About the Word ‘Free’

According to WSJ, people did not take up the offer because they wanted the free pizzas. It was because they needed it. The people who made the sacrifice were so poor that they couldn’t let that deal slip.

Food is a necessity for life, and not all people have that privilege to have food on their plates every day. A tattoo could have solved a great problem for these people. Without a second thought, they were ready to get something that would stay with them for life, which did nothing good.

Brands Keep Exploiting People’s Psychological Weaknesses

It is not the first time a brand has come up with an offer as strange as this. Offering free stuff in exchange for permanent body changes is a very harmful way of marketing your product. Some companies have also asked employees to tattoo their logos on their body if they wanted a raise.

People in desperate need of money are often trapped in these campaigns. They can’t make a decision, and at that point, free stuff looks like the best option.

Free sounds fun, and it is a very powerful word. Brands have been using it for decades. It makes everyone fall for it. Marketing tactics like this are bound to keep coming because companies are always on the lookout for exploiting people’s psychology.

People are vulnerable, and anyone can be easily trapped in these marketing campaigns. If you want to market your product, you need to know how harmful tactics like this can be.

While the benefits of negative publicity are still debatable, asking for people to tattoo your brand’s logo on their skin is never a good idea. This failed marketing campaign is only an example of how brands have been using clever tactics to gain traction.

If there is one takeaway from all this, it is that there is no such thing as a free lunch — literally. You can’t get something for free.