Steph, Serena, Tom, Megan, Charles Sell Sandwiches For Subway ‘Eat Fresh Refresh’
Wednesday, July 14, 2021 at 01:35PM By Barry Janoff
July 14, 2021: Subway Restaurants has long been aligned with athlete ambassadors.
Several years back, marketing featured such spokespersons as Michael Phelps. Pele, Blake Griffin, Robert Griffin III, Nastia Liukin, Laila Ali, Apolo Anton Ohno and Eric LeGrand.
More recently, the roster has included Megan Rapinoe, Tony Hawk, Bill Belichick, JJ Watt (and brothers and parents), Draymond Green, Jayson Tatum, Deion Sanders and Marshawn Lynch.
Now, to support its “Eat Fresh Refresh” brand reboot, Subway has enlisted some of sport’s most high-profile personalties, including Stephen Curry, Serena Williams, Tom Brady and Charles Barkley, as well as Rapinoe.
In a multi-platform “never-ending” campaign, Subway offers, “We’ve hit refresh on everything we do — which means so much new is officially at Subway.”
Creative shows that its menu has so many new items that they can’t be described by one person in one 30-second commercial, so they flow into the next spot.
Curry stars in “It’s Too Much For One Spokesperson,” but is cut off at the end by the Subway logo before finishing his narrative about the new Subway menu.
He then appears in the “It’s Too Much For One Spokesperson” sequel, offering, “Subway has so much food I ran out of time in the last ad . . . “ but is again interrupted, this time by Williams, who continues to share Subway’s new food items. But she, too, is cut off at the end by the Subway logo before finishing.
In a third "It’s Too Much For One Spokesperson," Serena hands off to Rapinoe, who is interrupted by Brady, who is joined by Curry, who asks him, “Do you even eat bread?” “Steph, it’s a commercial,” says Brady, who doesn't eat bread.
And in “We Don’t Have Time For Serena,” Barkley — who Subway said would be the voice for the new campaign — says, “Subway has so much new they couldn’t fit it in one ad. It’s the Eat Fresh Refresh. There’s so much new we don’t have time for Serena,” much to the dismay of Williams.
Barkley repeats that theme in "We Don’t Have Time For Steph," in which he talks about the Subway app and new menu and has no time for Steph. “I bet you don’t treat Brady this way,” Curry says. “Clearly you haven’t seen the other ad,” says Barkley, in which "We Don't Have Time For Tom."
“The Subway ‘Eat Fresh Refresh’ campaign brings to life how much new we have on our menu and is a significant moment in the brand’s transformation journey,” Carrie Walsh, Subway CMO, said via the brand.
“As such, one single creative execution or spokesperson wouldn’t have been enough,, We developed a creative idea with a supporting cast of the biggest names in sports to share all of the great changes happening at Subway in a story that continues across multiple spots and formats.”
The ‘Eat Fresh Refresh’ campaign includes TV, social media, digital and POP. Lead agency is McGarryBowen.
According to Walsh, “The effort is supported by one of the largest media investments in the brand’s history.
“In my almost 20 years in marketing, this is the most innovative campaign and media strategy that I’ve ever seen, and I am so excited to launch this unprecedented campaign.”
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