Mr Sub Sinks

OK folks, I don't use my blog for a lot, because quite frankly most of what I would post has been posted by someone else in probably a better format than what I can express. So, what you'll read below is nothing new - the only difference is that I happen to be impassioned by the situation...

Mr. Sub, a large Canadian sandwich shop put-out a series of ads, with the tagline "No one likes surprises". One of the executions had a middle-aged father sitting at a dinner table with his family, and he says something like "Family, I have an important announcement to make... I'm gay. Flaming gay..." and then the tagline "No one likes surprises" comes up along with Mr. Sub's logo. Here's a link to the ads and the reaction to it http://tinyurl.com/yekvydx It would be worthwhile to read it now.

Here folks is my take on this...

I believe that Mr. Sub and it's agency did not set-out to deliberately offend anyone with this ad. I say that because I believe we live in a sensitive society. Moreover, I have to believe that someone at BOS (Mr. Sub's Agency) and Mr. Sub itself would have enough common sense not to produce anything that they felt would intentionally hurt anyone. So, while I actually fully agree with and support everything the CAW says about coming-out, and I agree with the fact that the Mr. Sub ad could be viewed as offensive, I do not believe this is the relevant marketing or research issue.

To me, the relevant marketing and research issue is the same old thing that I see in so many ads that I view and test - the ad just sucks (as do all of the executions in this set of ads). The reason why it sucks is that it does absolutely nothing to enhance the brand image, it does nothing to create a bond with the brand and there is no emotional or psychological resonance in the ad what-so-ever. Humour, or irreverence, used in one execution of an ad does not bond people to either the brand or the product. There is no doubt that there are irreverent brands out there, and that there are brands that have irreverence as part of their DNA. However, Mr. Sub is not one of them.

In fact, the article above says that the ads were created on the insight (i.e. research) that people know what to expect when they dine at Mr. Sub. That's fine. Though it's not the greatest insight that research could produce, it works to build a campaign. What irks me though is the fact that the agency thinks that it has to use sophomoric, bordering on moronic humour, to get that message across. In my own ad testing experience, I have had to suffer the humiliation of testing ads that have people "playing water glasses" and doing "folkloric dance" because of all the time that they save with a particular service. Fortunately, these ads never test well and they get left on the focus-group floor where they should. And that's what should happen with all ads that attempt to use humour the way Mr. Sub has.

Finally, what I noticed was that the final shot of the Mr. Sub Ads say "A Canadian Classic for over 40 years". Now, how about tying that theme of "Canadian classic" into the fact that people know what to expect at Mr. Sub directly in the creative. That's linking the brand to an emotion, instead of linking it to irreverence.