I am constantly confused and annoyed by Subway's advertising. I have never understood why lab monkey's were selected to be featured in their ads. I always wonder how this was ever pitched to a client as a good idea for their business and also how a client bought off on it. It just feels like such meaningless colours on a screen and does not seem to deliver on any insight that would push me to buy their sandwiches.
I mentioned this to a colleague and the idea of mascots for brands came up. One of the most iconic mascots is the energizer bunny which still lives on today. The idea of the Energizer Bunny works so well because it delivers the brand message on and on, and on, and on... It's actually quite clever because although you might find the bunny annoying, it's mere appearance is a symbol of it's main functional benefit of battery life.
Telus also uses mascots quite cleverly for their incredibly successful "The future is friendly" campaign. They now use animals to help communicate the benefits of their service. A hippo for the largest 3G network, a dolphin for their smartphone offering all communicate the brand's emotional benefits as well as their functional.
This is where the Subway monkeys miss the point. How do monkey's symbolize anything about the benefits of going to subway? What kind of mascot would you rather see for subway?
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