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Jared Fogle
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| Jared S. Fogle | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 1, 1977 Indianapolis, Indiana |
| Residence | Indianapolis, Indiana |
| Employer | Subway |
| Occupation | Spokesman, writer |
| Title | The Subway Guy |
| Height | 6 feet 2 inches (1.9 m) |
| Weight | 190 pounds (86 kg) |
| Religious stance | Judaism |
Jared S. Fogle (born December 1, 1977 in Indianapolis, Indiana), also known as The Subway Guy, is a spokesman employed by Subway Restaurants in its television advertising campaign. He is noted for his significant weight loss, attributed to eating Subway sandwiches (prior to his hiring by Subway).
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By his junior year at North Central High School, Fogle's weight was at 425 pounds (193 kg), and he reportedly wore size XXXXXXL shirts[1]. After his roommate, a pre-med student, correctly diagnosed Jared with edema, he was sent to the hospital. Jared's father told him he might not live past 35, and Jared began to turn his life around.
Interested by Subway's "7 Under 6" campaign, Jared went and tried his first turkey club, and enjoyed the sandwich.[1] He developed his own "Subway diet", consisting of a 6-inch turkey club sandwich for lunch, and a foot-long veggie sub for dinner.[1]
After three months on the diet, he had lost nearly 100 pounds, and weighed in at 330 pounds (150 kg). He stuck with the diet and soon began to walk as much as he could, rather than using transport, and would even walk up the stairs rather than take an elevator.[1]
In the Indiana Daily Student in April, 1999, a former dorm mate of Fogle's named Ryan Coleman wrote an article about Fogle's weight loss story after Coleman had run into Fogle and hardly recognized him because of the lost weight.[1] A reporter for Men's Health magazine saw the article, and included the "subway sandwich diet" in an article on "Crazy Diets that Work". This article caught the eye of a Chicago-area Subway franchisee named Bob Ocwieja, who thought the story might have some potential, and he took the idea to Richard Coad, the creative director at Subway's Chicago advertising agency. In hindsight, Coad would later say "I kind of laughed at first, but we followed up on it."[1]
Coad and Bary Krause (the president of Coad's ad agency) sent an intern to Bloomington, Indiana - with only vague instructions - to track down the "subway guy" (at the time, they were not sure if he even ate Subway sandwiches, or some other brand of submarine sandwich). The intern started by going to a Subway near campus, and began describing the story about the anonymous "subway guy". A counter worker there immediately knew who he was talking about, and said "Oh, that's Jared. He comes here every day."[1]
After finding out that Jared did indeed exist, and had lost weight as described in the article, Coad and Ocwieja took the idea to Subway's new marketing director, who had previous experience in fast food, and the marketing director responded "I've seen that before...Fast foods can't do healthy"[1] as a marketing vehicle. Subway's lawyers also weighed in on the idea of the promotion, saying that there would be liability issues with promoting some sort of informal medical claim.
The idea looked to be fading into oblivion, but Krause and Coad decided to try to run a regional ad campaign, and many franchise owners in the area also liked the idea. However, regional ad agencies didn't normally pay to make their own commercials; instead, they usually paid only to run the commercial spots in their regions.[1] Krause decided to make the commercials without receiving any money from other sources. He would later comment "For the first and only time in my career, I gave the go-ahead to shoot an ad that we weren't going to be paid for."[1]
The first spot aired on January 1, 2000, introducing Jared and his story, complete with a disclaimer: "[The Subway diet], combined with a lot of walking, worked for Jared. We're not saying this is for everyone. You should check with your doctor before starting any diet program. But it worked for Jared."
The commercial was a stunning success, and the day after it aired, Krause began receiving calls from USA Today, ABC News, Fox News, and Oprah.[1]
A few days later, Subway's national advertising director called Krause and asked if the spot could be aired nationally. It was a smashing success, and Subway's 2000 sales exceeded those of the previous year by 18 percent. In 2001, they rose another 16%. Jared became a well-recognized national phenomenon.
