Pizza company Domino's Pizza launched a series of advertisements on 22 May, 2000 featuring this weird puppet character named Bad Andy. The puppet was specially designed for Domino's by The Jim Henson Company and is described on Domino's website as "a fuzzy, loveable, irreverent animal character who tries to divert Domino's team members' attention from making perfect pizzas."1 Note it says "animal character" and not a specific animal type. Bad Andy looks like some sort of monkey with most of its features beyond limbs and head missing. A horrible foray into the field of genetic engineering? The result of a catastrophic nuclear accident near a zoo? A horribly burnt circus monkey? Who knows...?
Bad Andy is supposed to be bad. Mischevious. In television, radio, and print commercials, Bad Andy is depicted as hampering the efforts of good Domino's employees as they try to make their pizza. The slogan that went along with these commercials is "Bad Andy. Good Pizza." The Bad Andy commercials were the first series of advertisements conceived of for Domino's from ad company Deutsch Inc. Bad Andy began doing stranger and stranger things but its antics have finally ceased:
Our new advertising campaign, "Get the Door. It's Domino's." capitalizes on Domino's heritage and competitive advantage of pizza delivery. The Bad Andy campaign focused on what goes on inside our stores and now it is time to tell the delivery story.
The Bad Andy campaign focused on our in- store operations. Our new campaign shifts to where Domino's really impacts the consumer at the door and in their homes.2
Bad Andy's days are over. And still no one knows what the fuck it was.
1http://www.dominos.com/Press/ViewRelease.cfm?Articleid=98
2http://www.dominos.com/About/faq.cfm
For an image of the freak, you can currently go to http://www.commando.com/bad%20andy.jpg. Word to Google's image search.