Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Subway sues Quiznos over video contest

The New York Times: Sandwich chain Subway is alleging that rival Quiznos and Viacom's iFilm damaged its brand via a user-generated video contest. The lawsuit could determine whether marketers can be held liable for messages contained in content created by outsiders, according to this article.

Finally, some real controversy
It's taken a while, but finally 2008 has delivered.
I was thinking this story was completely harmless and there was no way Subway could win. That was until I read that Quiznos actually challenged their supporters to make an ad which demonstrated Quiznos' superiority over Subway!
That's a little bit excessive.

And from the poor victim involved:
"Quiznos led you to believe it was O.K. to do it...It’s like mudslinging, in a sense. Like politicians slinging mud back and forth at each other. I took it that it was all fair in business."
Poor guy. Interesting that he can't make up his own mind about whether something is ok or not. Also interesting that he thinks that Politicians slinging mud at each other is ok. Always a good solution to detract from your own problems and bring attention to someone else's.
And we're talking about products! Nothing special, not the end of the world. If Subway was smart, they would have done their own ad, destroying Quiznos. That would have been something exciting!

Spelling is a bit crap, but it brings the point across nicely.

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