Russian with Domino’s tattoo loses right to free pizza for life

To win a century of free pizzas, Dmitry Mezentsev had a tattoo of the company’s logo inked on his ankle.

A Russian man who tattooed the Domino’s logo on his ankle to win a century of free pizza has lost a court battle after the promotional offer was withdrawn.

Dmitry Mezentsev, a Moscow resident, was one of 350 winners in a 2018 “Domino’s Forever” campaign to receive 100 free pizza vouchers per year for 100 years.

To secure the offer, he had to get a tattoo of the company’s logo at least 2cm in length on a visible part of his body and post the results on social media.

Mezentsev chose his ankle and took advantage of the free pizzas until the campaign was cancelled in 2023.

In a post on the Russian social media network VKontakte, the company announced that year that the vouchers were no longer valid and offered to fund cover-up tattoos for participants.

Mezentsev said he would take the company to court, demanding that they continue to provide 100 pizzas with a diameter of 28cm annually until 2118 and offer compensation for “moral damages”.

“I got sick of pizza, but obligations to customers have to be fulfilled. It’s a matter of principle,” Mezentsev told Moskva FM in 2023.

On Wednesday, Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court ruled in the company’s favour and rejected the disgruntled Moscow resident’s appeal.

It was not the campaign’s first controversy. When it was first announced in 2018 in a post on the company’s Facebook page, organisers initially failed to place a limit on the number of participants.

The promotion took off across the country, where the average disposable income was about £375 ($855) per month at the time.

The pizza chain was quickly overwhelmed with hundreds of customers sharing images of their fresh tattoos and was forced to impose a limit of 350 people as well as a cut-off date of a week.

In an urgent update shortly afterwards, the company wrote: “Friends, we already have 350 participants! We are not receiving any new tattoos!” as it urged customers to cancel their appointments.

Some customers complained that they had rushed to get inked with the brand’s signature blue and red, only to find themselves not included in the promotion.

Others were disappointed to find out more than a year afterwards that the “lifetime pizza” deal was subject to tax.

Domino’s operated in Russia under a franchise licence, which was terminated after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In 2023, Anton Pinskiy, a Russian restaurateur, and Timati, a pro-government rapper who once penned the lyric “my best friend is President Putin”, announced that they would take over the franchise’s Russian assets, encompassing 120 active stores.

Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.