
Domino's Uses Pizza-Smelling Thermal Ink on Rented DVDs [video] - azov
http://www.thedenveregotist.com/news/national/2013/may/20/dominos-uses-pizza-smelling-thermal-ink-rented-dvds-media
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tedkalaw
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-
snatc...](http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/16/hideo-kojima-recalls-snatchers-
heat-activated-disk-what/)

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mathattack
"I got yelled at for it and they didn't let me do it."

Sounds like banking corporate culture. :-)

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tantalor
"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
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
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

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nivla
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?

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onuryavuz
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.

~~~
judk
Or you assume that someone spilled pizza on the DVD and you are angry at the
vendor for providing a dirty dvd

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

~~~
thejosh
There is subliminal messaging then there is marketing that slaps you in the
face.

~~~
maccard
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?

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Pitarou
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.

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lostlogin
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.

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

~~~
anigbrowl
Sounds like an ad concept from an ad agency.

~~~
alex_doom
Most likely an agency concept to win new business. Most pitch ideas are just
clever things that never get produced.

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

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sciguy77
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.j...](http://globalelitetv.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/pepsi_sex.jpg)

~~~
Stormcaller
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
"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.

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michaelchum
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.

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enscr
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...

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vezzy-fnord
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)

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brianbreslin
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.

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KhalilK
Thermal inkjet: making shit look cool since 1957.

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kimonos
Hmmmm, pretty interesting and clever marketing technique!

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duhballs
kill me now.

