Subway's Jared Fogle problem is not the only threat to the franchise's healthy messaging. A competing fast food brand is also touting the health benefits of its products: Taco Bell. Seriously, we're not kidding.

Taco Bell is asking consumers to "think outside the bun," and it appears the brand is taking its own advice. Taco Bell's "Drive-Thru Diet" appears to have been stolen straight out of Subway's playbook. The campaign features "Christine's Story," a tale of a woman who made "different choices" on the Taco Bell menu and lost 64 pounds.Continue reading...

The problem with hitching your brand-wagon to a single star is that sometimes that star falls off his or her own wagon (see: Smith, Anna Nicole and TrimSpa). Such is the case with the chain's Jared "The Subway Diet" Fogle.

On December 1, candid photos of the Subway spokesman were picked up from an obscure message board and begin trickling up. By the end of the day, leading US gossip site Perez Hilton was featuring Subway's diet guru and icon looking... very heavy. Chunky, some might say. The schadenfreude of the websites that published the pictures was thick. If Subway brand managers are not in damage control mode at this very minute, they are in deep trouble.

Jared, who claimed to have lost 245 pounds eating Subway sandwiches, has been a Subway spokesman for years now: last year, the brand celebrated its 10th anniversary with him. Subway continues to rely heavily on him as it pitches its offerings as healthier than the competition. This year Jared has appeared with NFL stars such as Reggie Bush and Brady Quinn.Continue reading...