Domino’s Pizza and other Ames pizza joints have waged war in the Iowa State Daily.

In recent months, Daily readers have been enamored with what some consider “questionable” advertising by Domino’s and other local restaurants, specifically Home Team Pizza.

A Domino’s ad, which appeared in the Daily during the last week of August, used a Top 10 theme to draw reader attention. The No. 1 reason to order from Domino’s was: “We’re not Home Team.”

Home Team responded with a similar ad Aug. 29. In its own Top 10 list, Home Team said it “isn’t a huge national chain serving bland, generic pizzas at over-inflated prices.”

Tom Baldwin, owner of Home Team Pizza, said his business was simply responding to Domino’s advertisements.

“It’s quite clear that Domino’s is the aggressor here,” Baldwin said. “They have singled out Happy Joe’s, Pizza Pit and Home Team in their ad campaigns.”

Baldwin said he felt the competition was like a political campaign.

“We chose to counter-attack. I don’t like to run my business that way, but I will do what I have to,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin added that he doesn’t think the “wars” will continue, but it is up to Domino’s and its owner, Ray Williams.

Williams admits that he started the war, aimed mainly at Home Team. “I was going through the roof every time I read an ad that stated, ‘We’re the best,'” Williams said. “The statements were simply not true.”

Williams said his ad campaign was never intended to offend anyone.

“I’m just a marketing kind of a person,” he said. “I love creativity and sarcasm together. Ads are better when they are sarcastic and funny.”

The ads were used to “pep up” the competition, Williams said.

“We do the best job in the business,” Williams said. “No one can deliver pizza as good and as fast as we do. Ask students on campus. The product will prove me right.”

But Baldwin said Williams took over a dying Domino’ s business a little more than a year ago, and he’s just now trying to draw attention to himself.

A Domino’s ad depicting O.J. Simpson sitting in the electric chair ran in the Daily Oct. 3.

The cartoon read: “It’s the end of the line, O.J. Do you have any last requests?”

O.J. answered: ‘The Mega-Deal from Domino’s.”

A woman drawn to look like Marcia Clark then said: “He’s not good enough for Domino’s. Make him eat Home Team.”

Baldwin said he was not amused.

“I strongly disagree with that type of marketing,” he said. “An individual’s personality is shown in their advertisements.”

A different Domino’s ad in the Daily focused on Happy Joe’s. Included in the ad was: “Happy Joe’s ain’t so happy no more.”

Hank Kohler, owner of Happy Joe’s of Ames, said he was actually somewhat flattered by the ad.

“I find it kind of neat to be the standard by which the industry is measured,” he said. “That means to me that no one can duplicate our product or do it the same way, quality wise.”

Janette Antisdel, general manager of the Daily, said it’s been the paper’s policy to let the law decide what is printed.

“Our policy has been that advertisers should have the same First Amendment rights as everyone else … as long as it is legal and in good taste,” she said. Antisdel added that the Daily reserves the right to refuse any advertisement, for any reason, but the content of a business’s advertisement is typically left up to the owner.

Annette Forbes, the Daily’s advertising manager, said the Daily consulted its lawyer about the pizza ads.

“As our opinion of them gets to be a little discerning, we call a lawyer both to protect our advertisers and ourselves,” she said.

Forbes said she also encourages advertisers to consider what is appropriate to selling their products when designing ads.