Subway Scrabble Spells L-A-M-E
Published August 11, 2007
This series takes a candid look at the advertising being crammed onto your television screens and into your heads. Is it really good advertising, or just wasting a commercial break? Reader suggestions are always welcome.
We all love a good contest, and giveaways are even better. What more could a consumer want than to be given stuff for free, especially when the list of free stuff to get includes money? No better way to get folks excited than to throw big numbers around.
Enter Subway, who apparently decided that the best way to combat Quizno's knocking their product was not to improve their product, but to have a giveaway. Enter Subway Scrabble, where they give away a bunch of free food, and even $100,000 to anybody who is patient and persistent enough to try. The contest is one thing, but their attempts to get the public interested are something else entirely.
We see our cute couple headed to Subway for lunch, but their entrance is interrupted by a guy who is so drenched, he needs to give a little wet-dog shake before he can comfortably take another sip from his soda. Puzzled, they continue inside, only to cross paths with yet another soaked-but-happy patron. As we the audience also begin to wonder, we learn about the contest, where you could win up to $100,000.
Cue another Subway customer, who is so ecstatic over his instant-win piece, he launches his uncovered cup of soda all over the little girl next to him. She, of course, continues to smile, since soda baths are her thing. Sure it's clever, people so excited they don't mind an afternoon smelling like Coke, but could we get some logic in here?
If you actually *gasp* listen to the contest, you'll notice that the only way you can win the money is to collect game pieces and enter yourself in an online drawing. The only thing you can get instantly is food and drinks. Now, this is no surprise, since that is standard practice with fast-food giveaways, as anyone who has taken their friends and game pieces to McDonalds for half a dozen free small Cokes can attest.
Subway, on the other hand, has chosen to insult what little intelligence we have left by telling us that we'll spill our soda in excitement over the opportunity to win a free six-inch sub sandwich. I appreciate the need for creativity, but I'm sorry, I don't buy it.
- Subway Scrabble Spells L-A-M-E
- Published: August 11, 2007
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Culture: Advertising and Marketing, Video: Film and TV Business, Video: Television
- Part of a feature: I Don't Buy It
- Writer: Geeves
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Comments on this articleComments
i appreciate that the point of advertising is to get your attention by being clever, but you don't need to get outlandish for it to work.
Actually, geeves, You're wrong. People remember the outlandish, the silly, the incongruous. You might want to check out--oh, I don't know-- any successful commercial of the last fifty years.
AGAIN. i said you don't NEED to be outlandish to make it work. i know that outlandish often does work. i personally have seen many that i loved - though many of them, from beginning to end, were ads that were blatantly unusual and different, not just trying to turn a normal situation into the outrageous in order to suit whatever they're trying to promote.
Fair enough. So how would you have sold the promotion?
hm. i don't know if i would have chosen Scrabble as the game to partner with.
i understand that it's a money giveaway, and the easiest way to get people to play is to make them think it's easy to win. what better way to do that than with an ad full of excitement?
i know! *sarcasm* since it's subway, why not the Subway Hungry Hungry Hippo contest? Seriously. You have a more direct food reference, it's more kid friendly (which is a better market to target for prize action anyway), and you can make it like the game, the more you collect, the more you win...
within limits of course, we don't want anybody writing to subway about the fighter jet they didn't win.
That would be okay, except for the fact it would be illegal. You can't target kids with cash giveaways.
sorry, i should have specifically stated that they would be collecting towards prizes, not money. (that makes me wonder if you got the fighter jet joke)
Logic in a commercial? You mean like a little man made of playdough helping people make rolls or elves that live in trees making cookies? The trick to advertising is to be memorable, not realistic. If you are really insulted by this, odds are you are a tad too sensitive. If you wait long enough, you should see a commercial for a pill that will help.
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Where's the real beef? The least you could've done is included some references. I like Subway and have always preferred it over Quiznos even if their commercials are lame. All commercials are trying to grab your attention with stupid little skits.....get over it and write about what you know. You could actually do something productive during a commercial break and decide to help out your girlfriend/wife/mother.