Title: Criticize Me! Subway and the Crossed-Off Cross Promotion

The Subway restaurant chain likes to tell its customers to “eat fresh”. But in 2004 Subway had to eat something different: a controversial cross-promotional campaign launched by its’ German franchises. Cross-promotions occur when two organisations agree to promote each other’s products or goals. In the Subway case, the restaurant chain’s 100 German franchises contacted the company handling German distribution of Super Size Me, a documentary harshly critical of McDonald’s Subway international rival.

To encourage diners to see the film, Subway agreed to use promotional tray liners – ones that featured a chubby Statue of Liberty holding, not a torch and book, but a burger and fries. The liners included the question “Why are Americans so fat? ” “The people in Germany do understand what we want to say and that we do no want to offend anybody,” said a representative of the German company that created the liners.

But as Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan famously declared, we live in a global village: Unfortunately, a few of Subway’s cross promotional tray liners went cross-country, crossing the Atlantic to the United States, where they made people – well, cross. “They should feel bad about fanning the flames of anti-Americanism in order to sell more sandwiches,” said Jeffery Mazzella, executive director of the U. S-based Center for Individual Freedom.

The center launched an email campaign, asking supporters to make their feelings known to Subway executive. This is every bad stereotype about corporate America cone true,” railed Tom DeLay, majority leader of the U. S House of Representatives. “I guess for some companies, corporate patriotism is as flexible as Jared’s waistline. ” (Jared Fogle, well know from Subway television commercial, lost 250 pounds on a diet of Subway sandwiches. ) Not all U. S observers trashed Subway. This is a gross example of American overreaction,” said Alan Hilburg, president of Porter Novelli Consulting. But just like an extra-value meal, there’s more: The crisis supersized when Subway’s cross-promo partner, the German film distributor, sent journalists a media kit that contained a startling image: a giant hamburger crashing into skyscrapers, which spew smoke and topple towards the ground. More than one observer noted a strong resemblance to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. That is not our promotion, and the booklet was never handed out at Subway’s German franchises,” said a Subway representative in the United States, stressing the fact that the media kit belongs to the film distributor alone. In fact, officials in Subway international headquarters in the United States disavowed knowledge of the entire campaign. A Subway representative said the company’s leaders were as surprised as others at the cross-promotion. “We try not to put too much restriction on the franchises to keep up the entrepreneurial spirit of the brand,” he explained.

But he added that, in the future, Subway’s top management would take greater control of the company’s many regional marketing campaigns. Subway’s cross-promo partner displayed a disturbing lack of knowledge of modern public relations when a representative expressed surprise that the media kit’s controversial images had migrated to web sites. Others knew better: Because of the Internet, there’s no longer a clear delineation between markets,” said Ned Barnett of Barnett Marketing Communications. Everybody working in PR for a multinational needs to realise that what’s said to one person is said to everyone. The Center for Individual Freedom reported that the media kit even found its way into a Subway restaurant in Munich, where a U. S citizen saw it and delivered it to the center. The fast food fiasco had a fast ending when Subway’s German restaurants agreed to end the cross-promotion early. A representative from Subway’s headquarters apologized for the tray liners, adding that the German restaurants had been in daily contact “because they feel bad” We’re glad they responded,” said a representative from DeLay’s Office. “But [we’re] not exactly sure how you undo the damage. The Center for Individual Freedom termed the apology “unexpected” and said that Subway’s statement “left us very satisfied with their response to this whole thing. But for some, analysis of Subway’s cross-promotion had just begun. “Subway’s debacle raises several important questions for PR executives to ponder” declared PR News. The magazine graded Subway’s response to the crisis and awarded the restaurant chain a D. This is a classic case – sure to be chewed on for years by the PR industry and academics alike” wrote Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO of KDPaine and Partners. Let the chewing begin ? Case Study Discussion Questions 1. What do you know about the values of the Center for Individual Freedom? Should it not have respected Subway’s freedom to express itself 2. How many different publics were involved in this incident? What are the values of each? What resources did each possess? 3. Should international companies such as Subway approve and monitor all of their national or regional marketing campaign? Why or why not?