There is a recent string of commercials playing for Domino’s Pizza that has me worried for the future of humanity. Technology has won out in marketing yet again.
This is worse than the time I wrote about McDonald’s giving out toys with a link to its own app. Domino’s has taken it a step further downhill.
There’s one commercial with a girl whining about how she sent everyone a pizza emoji – her friends, her boyfriend, her parents – and none of them understood her.
“I sent a pizza emoji to Domino’s,” she says, “and they sent me a pizza. Domino’s gets me.”
I don’t get Domino’s. Do they really think people are too lazy to dial a phone number and place a delivery order?
Newsflash, America, some people actually use their phones to talk to people. Do you remember how to do that? You have to use your voice instead of your fingers to bring a message out. I know nobody memorizes numbers anymore because phones do that for us.
Back in the Stone Ages people used to talk to each other over the phone. We might not have seen their faces, but we heard their voices, and that tells you a lot more than a text message can.
Domino’s just threw that all out the window. It’s as if they were saying “No need to call us, America, just send the universal pizza symbol.”
It’s comparable to giving numbers to fast food menus, I suppose.
“I’ll take a No. 2,” has become a stinking keyboard extension in the case of ordering pizza. I wonder what the company’s competition makes of all of this.
They’re probably either laughing their asses off or trying to outdo them by hiring a new, 20-something marketing expert.
Personally, I’d much rather support local pizza places and make the all laborious phone call to get delivery or take out. Takeout is even better if you’re feeling extra energetic because it’s cheaper than tipping the delivery guy.
Either way, it’s bad enough we’re lazy to the point of taking delivery food for granted. Now we’re taking out half the human aspect of the delivery business.
Ordering pizza online is fine if you’re bothered by making phone calls or can’t hear, I guess, but ordering pizza from an emoji? Seriously?
Previously, Domino’s let you order by text message, but apparently that was too hard for people to figure out. You can still use this method if you don’t have a smartphone.
According to eater.com, the emoji method just asks you to register with Domino’s so they have the necessary information to send you a pizza like your address and favorite toppings. After that, you can tweet the emoji at Domino’s or send them the text message and the company will send a confirmation message to make sure you’re going to pay them.
I guess that’s good. They don’t include that in the commercials, though.
“By the way, we’re not going to send you a pizza if you just so happen to accidentally send us a picture of a pizza slice.”
Not good marketing, I suppose. The other thing they don’t mention is that you save one order and one order to your account information. If you like to shake things up, the whole emoji thing is probably more trouble than it’s worth since you’d have to go back and edit your account.
It might actually be easier to get off Twitter (gasp) and use your phone for its original purpose.
KELSEY GHERING
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