Posted on 07/29/2004 7:51:26 AM PDT by ConservativeMajority
(Talon News) -- The Subway Restaurant chain recently launched an advertising campaign in Germany that asks, "Why are Americans so fat?" House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) finds the insulting promotion too much to swallow, saying that for some companies, "corporate patriotism is as flexible as Jared's waistline." Jared Fogle is a Subway spokesman who claims to have reduced his weight from 435 pounds to 245 pounds on a diet of Subway sandwiches.
German customers are being served their sandwiches on a trayliner that promotes the movie "Super Size Me," the story of filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's month-long splurge of eating only McDonald's food. He says his overeating caused him to add 25 pounds and raised his liver and blood count to unhealthy levels. Spurlock questions the responsibility of the "fast-food culture" for endangering Americans' health.
The advertising text uses a derogatory term for Americans -- Amis -- and features an obese caricature of the Statue of Liberty holding a hamburger and fries.
The ad also features a quote from controversial 300-plus pound filmmaker Michael Moore that says, "The only time I have been scared for my life has been going through a McDonald's drive-thru."
DeLay said, "It is clear that Subway has done very well for decades due to the patronage of Americans. For Subway to thumb its nose at its American customers and promote Michael Moore's blame-America-first conspiracy in a foreign country is very concerning."
The National Legal and Policy Center has called on Subway to immediately stop the promotion it says is designed to exploit anti-American sentiment in countries like Germany.
Chairman Ken Boehm said, "Subway has defined a new low in corporate behavior with this campaign."
He added, "Inflaming cultural tensions to increase market share is immoral and dangerous. Americans deserve to know about Subway's campaign to insult us abroad and to attack our national symbols."
Frontiers of Freedom has sent a letter to Subway Founder and President Fred DeLuca asking him to immediately recall the offensive trayliners.
Vice President of Policy Kerri Houston said, "This is an outrageous example of poor corporate citizenship and judgment."
She continued, "Your support of Morgan Spurlock and Subway's promoting him as the "new" far left Michael Moore are very troubling. Both men's misleading and factually dishonest 'documentaries' advance a 'Blame America First' message."
Houston complains that the mockery of Americans and their national symbols is an insult coming from a company that has profited handsomely by the patronage of its customers in the United States.
"Super Size Me" won the award for Best Direction at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.
Subway is based in Milford, CT and has over 21,000 restaurants in 76 countries.
An image of the trayliner can be viewed online at www.nlpc.org.
Copyright © 2004 Talon News -- All rights reserved.
I have no problem boycotting Subway. Their food sucks.
Mr Goodcents is a billion times better. :)
Boycott over this??? Have we turned into a bunch of whiny, sensitive, girly-man liberals?
Let's see what are Subway's sins? Calling Americans fat, showing a picture of a fat Statue of Liberty, and using a "derogatory" term (I've never even heard of Amis) for Americans.
If you object to this this then you're just being PC. I don't favor government intervention on the Fat Train, but more power to Subway for using capitalism to make money on the anti-fat brigade.
This is not treason or anything close to it. This is not going overseas and criticizing a war. This is simply going over to another country and saying Americans are fat to help them make a buck. Maybe they'll make the Germans fat in the meantime.
I find that very hard to believe that fatty mcfatfat himself was scared at mcdonalds.
Subway has terrible food, so I know i'll have no problem not going there.
Seems to me Subway's big sandwich rolls would be more cause for hyperinsulinism, than a big mac.
Objecting to being insulted is not PC. PC is trying to suppress speech you don't like by using governmental means. Refusing to do business with a company that insults you is just basic self-respect, something you don't seem to understand.
How appropriate. An American company, who was modestly growing in America until some formerly fat American wrote them a letter about how he used their products to lose weight. They wrapped their growth around him and his ideas (didn't even have to come up with an ad plan on their own)
Then, when they get big and rich enough fromn their American customers, they branch out to other countries and immediately begin anti-American campaigns.
The last time I ate at a Subway was about 5 years ago. I guesss that really was the last time.
Thank you. My opinions sent!!! And Subway is out of my list of places to eat.
NOT PC!! Just responding to Anti-American flap from a company that Americans made rich. Many of us have found our power in just saying no to businesses (and actors) that do not respect America/Americans, and we are using it.
No, I understand being insulted. But if what Subway is doing counts as an insult, then my fellow conservatives are far more thin-skinned than I thought. PC as I understand it means to avoid certain language for fear of offending people.
Many Americans are fat, porkers, bloated, obese, grotesquely huge, gluttons. Anyone offended? Get over it. Boycott me or whatever else you want to do.
I agree that not doing business with a company that insults you is basic self-respect, but getting insulted over something like this is almost Kerryesque. It sounds like the crybaby whines about releasing pictures etc we constantly hear from the Kerry camp.
Quiznos Rules, Subway Drools...
I'm in. I eat out a lot. Subway has lost my business.
Saying Americans are fat is not anti-American. Have we lost the ability to laugh at ourselves? Or has Everything American become a religion, and the Statue of Liberty an icon that dare not be tarnished?
And respect? At what point are we going to stop? People who go around asking to be shown respect usually don't deserve it. Look in the mirror, folks. You're beginning to sound like the extreme left.
In-your-face attacks on competitors are never, never good for business. Attacks on your nation are, well, braindead. Who authorized this pitch? Has someone been spiking their turkeybreast? If this story is true, count me out as a customer forever. Let them rely on Michael Moore's business for their profits.
Correction. They're overflowing with nutrition-free ICEBERG LETTUCE, not real vegetables.
It's just cardboard bread and iceberg lettuce. Better than super-size fries but still not nutritious or healthy in the least bit!!!
Probably the people inside were more afraid of the voracious filmmaker.
So? Buy a franchise...
I'm in. I only ate on $2.99-for-a-footlong Tuesdays only occassionally--they are crap... 99% processed white unhealthy bread & nutrition-free iceberg lettuce. No real vegetables, meat, 100% whole wheat breads, or cheese.
Didn't Blimpie used to advertise on Rush Limbaugh's radio show? I seem to remember him reading Blimpie ads in the past.
*gentile cough* Well, at ~300 lbs, I'm scarcely in a position to call subway out on this one...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.