Following the news that chief marketing officer Tony Pace will step down on September 30 to launch his own consulting firm Cerebral Graffiti, Adweek reports that Subway has hired Chris Carroll in a top marketing role.
Carroll served as chief marketing officer for Subway more than a decade ago, leaving the company in 2005, and recently held a position as EVP/chief client officer at Zimmerman. Since leaving Subway, he has also held marketing roles at Liberty Tax Service and Cosi.
A spokeswoman for the company also said, “Subway confirms that it is conducting a closed review of its creative advertising.” She added, “Based on confidentiality agreements, we are not disclosing participating agencies,” making it unclear if incumbent agency MMB, which has handled creative for Subway since 2005 will be part of the review process. Subway spent $534 million on measured media last year, according to Kantar Media.
Both the hire of Carroll and the creative review, of course, follow the news earlier this month that the FBI raided the home of longtime (and now former) spokesman Jared Fogle, presumably in connection to child pornography charges brought against the former head of Fogle’s charitable Jared Foundation.
As expected, Subway is doing everything possible to protect its image following the ordeal and clearly felt a creative review was a necessary step in that process.