An Advertising Heavyweight

Believe it or not, but Jared Fogle and Subway have been a couple for ten years now, and it still seems like they can't get enough of each other. After some 50 commercials and four different ad agencies, he still regularly tops likeability and recall ratings. And now he's touring with his former fat pants.

Since Jared was introduced, showing those pants and explaining how he lost 245 pounds on a diet of Subway sandwiches, sales have more than doubled, to US$8.2 billion. That helps explain why they haven't split, even though senior marketing and agency executives have recommended a shift in direction on several occasions.

"Whenever the sales get sluggish, we say 'Put Jared back on TV,' and the sales go up every time," says Hardy Grewal, who owns the Southern California franchise rights. "People come in and say 'I lost 10, 20, 30 pounds on Jared's diet and I'm going to follow in his footsteps to lose weight.' "

To celebrate a decade of Jared, Subway is launching TV spots by Boston agency MMB, which have famous athletes congratulating him on his success. He's also on his "Tour de Pants," which kicked off in New York in February and will conclude with him retiring the jeans to a museum.

While none of the agencies that Jared outlived, including Publicis & Hal Riney, Euro RSCG, Fallon and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, are willing to talk about their time with him, it's said that he was a sore spot with the creatives who wanted to put their own spin on the account.

But you can't argue with success, and Jared has shown that keeping the weight off has kept his relationship with Subway fresh for ten years. And, as Subway chief marketing officer Tony Pace says, "Jared is essential to what we do but not the entirety of what we do."

Originally Posted: 3/9/2009 2:54:33 PM

Last Updated: 3/9/2009 2:56:44 PM