Subway veers from the trend of following a blockbuster ad campaign with a dud

Subway is in the midst of a turnaround that pivots on the sandwich chain’s new ad campaign, Eat Fresh Refresh, a successor to some of the most effective marketing the restaurant industry has ever seen. Following up on the likes of $5 Footlong spots and the long-running focus on a customer’s loss of 245 pounds from a Subway diet can’t be a cakewalk.

Just how difficult that challenge must be is the focus of this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast. Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks at two parallel situations from the 1980s: Wendy’s iconic Where’s the Beef? campaign and the cheeky run Burger King made on McDonald’s via a series of head-to-head comparisons.

As he shows, those attempts failed to have lightning strike twice. The recounts show how remarkable it is for a campaign like Subway’s follow-up to deliver more thunder.

Listen to this week’s episode and every installment by downloading Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.