Influencelebs: gold mine & minefield. – Part 1

By Gonzalo López Martí LMMIAMI.COM

• Jared Fogle pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and soliciting the services of underage prostitutes.
• Or something along those lines.
• He allegedly was using his foundation for such purposes.
• He had been touring schools across the country for years lecturing children (!) about healthy eating & healthy living.
• He was, in a way, the de facto leader of a child sexual abuse ring.
• With the media clout and deep pockets given him by a national fast food chain. !!!!!!!!
• The name Jared Fogle doesn’t ring a bell?
• He was the dude who lost dozens of pounds with a self-concocted “Subway dietplan”.
• He appeared in dozens, if not hundreds, of Subway TV spots, print ads, billboards, bus shelters etc etc etc
• With his help Subway leapt from being a tier two, also-ran QSR to playing in the big fast food leagues.
• QSR stands for Quick Service Restaurant.
• Before he became Subway’s worst nightmare he was a marketing dream come true: a goofy everyguy suffering from one of the most pervasive maladies hitting America today –obesity- who overcame his problem with ingenuity, determination and the help of a fast food outlet.
• A real story, authentic, seemingly devoid of marketing sugarcoating.
• No disruptive creativity or superproduction values required, the campaign wrote itself: it was an advertising home rum.
• I speak from personal experience: I worked with the Subway account for close to two years back in the late 00s.
• I operated on the “multicultural” side of the fence so I didn’t have to deal with the Jared juggernaut.
• For a number of reasons, Jared never connected with Hispanics and African Americans.
• Maybe Hispanics & African Americans sensed the evil lurking behind the façade.
• Who knows.
• I did have sporadic involvement in the “general market” part of the account.
• We were invited to pitch ideas for mainstream campaigns every now and then.
• I can attest that industrial amounts of sound strategic & creative thinking were developed, even produced, which never saw the light of day, mostly because Jared had no place in it.
• I don’t blame the client-side execs that nixed the work: the Jared narrative was simply too powerful to try new, different stuff.
• It wasn’t broke, why fix it?
• It was not advertising, it was true.
• Unfortunately, truth hurts too.
• As a result of the massive scandal making headlines these days, Subway fired its long time CMO, various senior execs and the agency in charge of handling Jared’s assorted campaigns throughout the years.
• I will exercise a timid defense here: according to media reports, nobody on Subway’s payroll has been accused of any wrongdoing.
• Why were all those people fired?
• What were they supposed to do to prevent this?
• Intrude into Fogle’s privacy?
• Eavesdrop on him?
• I’d dare say this guy was not conducting his despicable criminal activities out in the open, was he?
• He might have gone to great lengths to cover his and his accomplices’ tracks.
• Methinks Subway sends a slippery message by dismissing its agency and its marketing top brass: it kind of leads us to conclude that, hey, maybe they suspected something and failed to react and/or looked the other way.
• We will never know.
• A small army of lawyers and PR agents has probably stepped in to deflect the shrapnel.
• Without further delving into the heinous implications of criminal activity of such sordid nature, what kind of damage will this formidable faux pas inflict on the Subway brand?
• What’s this gotta do with a sub’s taste, ingredients or calorie count?
• How will it affect Subway’s bottom line?
• How will consumers react?
• Hard to gauge what the final fallout might be.
• To be continued next week.