Rats! Quiznos' ads breed disharmony
Singing critters put eatery in spotlight, but many find them off key
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
BY GEORGE TALBOT
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
First, there was the woman scrounging sandwich scraps out of the trash. Then came the chef who did not wear pants. Huey Mack thought he had seen it all until he saw the singing rats.
"Disgusting," said Mack, who owns a Quiznos Sub franchise in Robertsdale, Ala., in addition to his job as a county coroner. "I've witnessed some unpleasant things in my life, but that's up there with the worst of them."
The garbage-eating woman and the absent-minded cook were previous ad campaigns that gained the Denver-based Quiznos chain a sort of cult following -- and no shortage of criticism -- for its oddball marketing. But the response was nothing compared to the newest television commercials, which feature a pair of goggle-eyed, gap-toothed rodents warbling an impossibly off- key ode to Quiznos' toasted subs.
Quiznos officials said they're getting 1,000 calls a day in response to the ads.
The commercials began airing nationally Feb. 1. Tammi Johnson, who opened a Quiznos in Mobile, Ala., in June 2000, first saw the ad at a preview for area franchisees. She nearly fell out of her chair.
"I was stunned. Shocked," she said. "We watched the ad and then just sat there in silence. Somebody finally stood up and said, 'Are you trying to put us out of business?'"
DIVIDED OPINION
Johnson and her colleagues were not sure if the critters were rats, squirrels or fuzzy potatoes. They were not sure why a restaurant would use vermin to attract customers.
They were sure that they did not like the ad.
"We begged them not to show it. Pleaded," Johnson said. "But they said they'd done their research, and the focus groups loved them. The decision had been made."
Franchisees said business hasn't been the same since. Johnson said she receives dozens of calls each day from offended customers. "One man threatened to knock my head off if we didn't stop" running the ads, she said. Another said they gave his daughter nightmares.
Quiznos, founded in Denver in 1981, operates about 2,500 sandwich shops worldwide, including 34 in New Jersey. The chain takes 4 percent off the top of each store's gross sales for marketing and promotion, or an average of about $400 a week, according to franchisees.
Ken Patel said about 10 or 15 customers at the Watchung Quiznos have mentioned the ads, a small portion of the overall visitors to his store in the past month or so.
"The majority of people are disgusted by it. The young folks are open minded," said Patel, who took over the franchise last month. "They come in and ask questions about it, come in singing the song."
MAKING A SPLASH
Quiznos officials said they're thrilled with the attention paid to the current campaign, which they said was designed to help the chain stand out against bigger, better- funded competitors in the fast food marketplace.
The chain had about $1 billion in sales last year and was named the world's fastest-growing franchise in each of the past two years by Nation's Restaurant News, an industry publication. Quiznos said it is opening a new store about once every 16 hours, but the chain still has just one restaurant for every 10 operated by Subway, its biggest rival.
"We wanted to break through the clutter and get Quiznos noticed. Because we're still sort of an up-and-comer, we've had to be a little edgy to accomplish that," Quiznos spokeswoman Stacie Lange said.
Lange conceded she was dumbfounded the first time she saw the new ads, but said she found the screechy "We love the subs" jingle to be catchy.
"It definitely grows on you," she said.
Lange characterized the avalanche of calls the company has received as "sharply polarized," primarily along generational lines. Viewers in the 18-34 age demographic -- Quiznos' target market for the campaign -- tend to have the most favorable response, Lange said.
WHAT ARE THEY?
The Quiznos campaign was designed by the Martin Agency of Richmond, Va., a highly regarded firm whose clients include United Parcel Service, NASCAR and Miller Brewing Co.
"We've created some commercials that had buzz, but we've never had anything take off like this," said Dean Jarrett, a spokesman for the agency.
The unidentified creatures in the ad -- one wears a black derby hat, the other strums a guitar and wears an 18th century seafaring hat -- are "part of the mystique," Jarrett said. The characters were created by Joel Veitch, a twenty-something animator in London who refers to them as "spongmonkeys."
The campaign has received praise from critics, including the famously hard-to-please Bob Garfield, a columnist for AdAge.com, a Web site devoted to the advertising industry. Garfield gave the ad 3 1/2 stars out of a possible 4, saying it was "so weird, unexpected and reckless that it's just plain cool."
Others said the true measure of the ad's success will come at the cash register.
"There are two kinds of bad ads -- the ones that don't get noticed at all, and the ones that turn off potential customers," said George Franke, a marketing professor at the University of Alabama who specializes in advertising. "This one treads a fine line. It is, without a doubt, one of the most bizarre commercials I think I've ever seen, but that's not to say it won't be effective. For all we know, dead-looking mice might be the secret to selling a million sandwiches."
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