QSR Web:
Subway is one of a small number of U.S. businesses that are attempting to latch on to the upcoming Olympic fever by creating advertisements that relate to but don’t name the official event. As a result, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has responded by issuing a statement regarding what the group calls ambush marketing tactics in an effort to associate with the Olympic Winter Games and the U.S. Olympic Team.
In the Subway ad, Michael Phelps, one of the the chain’s spokesmen and a 14-time gold medal Olympic swimmer in the recent Summer Games, breaks out of the pool and “swims” cross country, heading north toward Canada (and Vancouver), the site of next month’s games. The tagline says Phelps “fuels up” with Subway’s low-fat Turkey sub “so he can get to where the action is this winter.”