Subway Scuttles Search, Hires Goodby

BOSTON Subway has called off the month-old review for the creative portion of its $300 million ad account and named Omnicom Group’s Goodby Silverstein & Partners to handle the business, the client has confirmed.

“We looked at all the agencies who approached us in the past and asked for a number of new submissions,” said Chris Carroll, svp of marketing for the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust, in a statement. “In the end, we were most impressed with GS&P. There didn’t seem to be any reason to drag the process out any further.”

The Milford, Conn., client parted with Publicis Groupe’s Fallon in May. Fallon handled the account for just eight months; Goodby, San Francisco, had been a runner-up in the previous review.

Subway had enlisted New York’s Joanne Davis Consulting to handle the search. The company had received work and questionnaires from a dozen agencies before cutting the review short, according to Carroll.

Media duties, currently at Grey Global Group’s MediaCom in New York, were never part of the review.

Independent agency McCarthy Mambro Bertino, which has been handling the duties on an interim basis, had been invited into the review [Adweek Online, July 28.] The Boston shop recently created a new campaign for the company with the tagline, “Choose well.” MMB is expected to continue working with Subway on projects. The agency did not immediately return calls.

Fallon’s first work for the client was poorly received. One campaign featured a man washing his car in a cheerleading outfit. He justified the strange behavior by saying, “It’s OK, I had Subway.” Follow-up ads returned to the chain’s longtime “Eat fresh” tagline. The shop’s final work for the client featured the chain’s famed pitchman Jared Fogle addressing child obesity.