Short livestream commentary (July 2015) by TJ Walker discussing Subway’s decision to cut ties with longtime spokesperson Jared Fogle after his home was searched in connection with suspected child pornography. Walker assesses Subway’s crisis response as balanced—mutual separation to avoid appearing punitive while distancing the brand—and offers a crisis communications course to viewers.
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Subway forced to cut ties with its chief spokesperson, Jared Fogle. So earlier this week, Subway, the sandwich shop, severed old ties with Jared, its longtime spokesperson. You may remember him. The last 15 years, he's been talking about how he lost a gazillion pounds eating exclusively Subway sandwiches. Well, earlier this week, his house was raided by the police looking for child pornography. Earlier this year, one of his employees was in fact arrested for charges related to child pornography. Now, this is a tricky situation for any company. On the one hand, Jared has not been arrested for anything. His house has simply been searched. On the other hand, Subway does not relish headlines that say, subway Child Pornographer Paid spokesperson. They don't look forward to headlines like that. No company does. Now, they can't seem like a bully convicting a man in the media before there have even been charges. I think they struck it just the right way. They hit the right tone because they said they reached out to Jared. They decided together they would sever ties for the moment and let him clear up all the legal difficulties in his household. That's a polite way of saying we want to kick him out. We don't want to be associated with him, but we don't want to look mean. So we got him to agree to saying, this is mutual, therefore it doesn't make us look like the bad guy. I think that's the best thing for Subway to do. People take child pornography very seriously as an offense. I know I do. You certainly don't want to see a company you give your money to appear to be supporting or paying someone who's using your money to perpetuate crimes of this nature. So it is a tough situation for Subway. I'm going to give them high marks. I'm going to give. And I haven't followed it that closely, this issue, but I've followed it probably as closely as most customers and investors. Little snippets here and there. I think Subway has played it right. They haven't hung Jared out to dry. They haven't tarred and feathered him. But they are sending a clear message to their consumers, to their investors, to their customers that, hey, we take this seriously and we don't want your money going towards anything that is illegal, inappropriate, or grotesque. So I give them high marks. Are you prepared for a crisis if it hits your organization because the media will descend upon you? I can't imagine how busy the head of public relations must be at Subways right now if you want to prepare. I have created a crisis communications course for you. The link below it will take you right to the course and you can watch the first four lectures at absolutely no charge. And if you want to purchase the course, I have a link below that gives you a 90% discount, so please check it out.
