April 25, 2004

I just wanted to momentarily sing the praises of Subway. Yes, the fast food restaurant. The reason for this being their recent commercial starring NASCAR driver Greg Biffle.

You see, every commercial out there right now that has anything to do with NASCAR involves a pit crew rushing in from out of nowhere to do some kind of coordinated change. Like the old Pizza Hut commercial for example. A driver sat down with his family to eat pizza when a pit crew suddenly rushed in, jacked the table up for some reason, set plates and utensils in front of each person, then disappeared.

Pit-crew-rushes-in-from-nowhere seems to be the template everyone in advertising uses when it comes to pushing any product sponsored by a NASCAR driver. It's really incredibly lazy when you think about it.

Did every commercial made by Michael Jordan have him playing basketball? No. Did every commercial made by Troy Aikman have him throwing a football? No. Did every commercial made by Martha Stewart have her making a decorative centerpiece made of pinecones, hedge clippings, and butt crust? No. So why do advertisers think we need this pit crew theme rammed down our throats?

Maybe they don't think we're capable of wrapping our heads around the fact that this guy on our TV screen races cars for a living even though they introduced him at the top of the ad as a NASCAR driver. We need a little help I guess.

These ad agencies should "think outside the box" from time to time. Subway did that and I took notice. They had Greg Biffle and some other man at Subway eating sandwiches when they somehow got into a race to finish their meals. I don't recall exactly, I've only seen it once or twice. Anyway, they were eating as fast as they can. Biffle eventually wins. Some other Subway customers realize who he is, then begin to cheer. Biffle stands and excitedly shakes up and sprays his soft drink all over the place like NASCAR drivers do with champagne after winning races.

It's still heavy on the NASCAR-ness, but, by god, someone working for Subway used their brain long enough to think of a somewhat original commercial. Thank you, Subway.