Subway claims that ‘Footlong isn’t a measurement of length’

Lets say ‘footlong’ isn’t a unit of measure, can they say the same about their 6 inch subs. Clearly they are also just 5.5 inches. Subway has been caught out on this one, big time.

If it is not a foot long, how can it be a footlong?

Gee FOOTLONG not an indication of length, really. I was over paying $10.00 for a salad roll anyway.

That response is outrageous.

Another poster now claims the original photos was posted on an American website in June 2012.

http://blog.collegehumor.com/p.....-demand-an

maybe the guy who determines the size at Subway has wang length issues.

Just own up to that fact you’re cheap pricks and you’re ripping us off!

You tried to get away with what every other food manufacturer is doing – ie. reducing the size while leaving the prices the same – only you couldn’t because the name you gave your product is based on its size!

It is not a foot in length, stop calling it a Footlong – false advertising as clear as it gets!

subway are just doing what all blokes do…….

By using that maths, yes, ladies, I do have an eight-inch cock….

They give me 1/12 of the sandwich!! I want 1/12 of the money back that I have been spending for years! I hate you Jerry!

This is a news story????- seriously get a life everyone!
“outraged that Subway are ripping us all off”-OMG- you have so little going onin your life this matters one bit?

My god. Who cares?

They’re not ripping you off– you see them make the damn thing. If you dont want it then you have ample opportunity to not purchase it.

Actually Harro, they gave you 11/12ths of the sandwich…

Is the macca’s quarter pounder actually a quarter pound?

If you view the original TV commercial for the footlong, they used the word Footlong indicating the length of the roll….

Sounds to me like misleading and deceptive conduct under Section 56 of the Trade Practices Act (if that still applies).

they need a new spokesperson – hopeless response. If not length, then what does it relate to?

so the six inch is also not a measurement of length?

This reminds me of that old joke about women’s spacial misperception and how long 7 inches is!

Funny that an Aussie living in the metric system was the one to point this out!

*eyeroll of the century*

Why is everyone shocked? Its the same as McDonalds using “100% Beef”. Test that. News: “Fast food industry not really honest about contents of their crap”

I’ve managed to convince my missus that five inches is six.

I dont believe the Photo was actually taken by the kid in Australia
The business Cards address and phone number parterns don’t look local
And dont get me started how useless a measuring tape with inches is in a country that uses metric, you can’t even buy measuring tape with just inches on it.

Why anyone is surprised about subway shrinking is beyond me

I havent gone to subway in ages because the Half Sub (6 Inch) has gotten tremendously smaller and smaller

In one case they gave me one that was no bigger that a Bigmac
meaning probably 3 – 4 inches

I assumed it was because the manual activity of cutting 12 inch bread is not exact measurement.
Not the “Footlong” was result of subway attempting to detach their “Footlong” from the official unit of measurement defined in physics and science.

Subway your bunch of nutjobs

The term Footlong is used so frequently in TVC’s and other promotions. We should form an advertising bureau that measures these standards to ensure we don’t have any misleading message in market…

i think we are all a little bit guilty in claiming that something is actually longer than it really is, so I for one cannot really point the finger at Subway, although if I did it would be my middle finger, as it extends further out, rather than my index finger, which is a footlong………… or just a little less actually.

Just had a footlong (sorry 11 incher) for lunch. Ham on classic italian, all the salads except for cucumber, with mayo & hot chilli sauce. The last inch was a struggle, thankfully there wasn’t another inch!

But Subway have a bigger issue to worry about – stopping their customers from blocking the footpath, really people, line up along the shop fronts, not at right angles to the window……

Love it when marketing douchebags forget that the words they use have actual meanings.

If the “Foot long is not meant to be a foot(12”) long and only a registered name for a product then WHY is another product called a Six Inch???

The measuring tape in the picture does look suspiciously free of metric measurements for an Australian one…

Are they doing an Armstrong? #LieStrong

It’s similar to HJ’s or McDonalds, can’t remember which. Heard that their “100% real beef” patty is also a trademark, not an actual indication of what’s in the patty.

Er, is it just me or is the John Holmes post a mere coincidence?

Wow are they like funnelling all those un-sandwiched inches into Scientology or something?

I can’t help wondering why Subway’s response wasn’t just to post a photo of a sub (wrapped for hygiene) next to a human foot. Then add a paragraph on their Wikipedia page with a legend of their founder and his notoriously small feet.

Lets get a class action going…

Biggest rip offs ever..fat people eat fastfood anyway!!

Does the Macca’s quarter- pounder weigh a quarter of a pound? Does the double quarter pounder weigh 1/2 a pound? If not, then this, too is an outrage! Maybe they should just stick with the “Royale with cheese”

Subway is not a healthy option when using there processed meat,sauces and wheat bread!! And we wonder why everyone is getting fat..wanting more food

Subway should have just said they’re doing their bit for Australia’s obesity problem.

Do we / our children / our tradies really need to eat a sandwich that is the size of a (US 14) shoe?

OK, I think my biggest question to Subway is;

Fine, your FOOTLONG is not a foot long, and is in fact 11 inches. I will accept that. But if I order a 6″ sub, do I get 6 inches of bread? What do you do with the remaining 5″? Or are you lying about giving me 6″ and really only doing 5.5″? Because, while “Footlong” may not be a unit of measurement in the world of Subs, 6 inches is a valid measurement.

Admit you were skimping on bread.

Go to your local vietnamese bakery – super filling lunches for $4 – $5! And the ingredients are much fresher. Subway is disgusting!

Of course footlong is not a measurement of length, and nor is lying fucking bastards a comment on their deviousness.

1) Was it Matt Corby the musician who caused this?
2) People eating less is not necessarily a bad thing.

Not a measurement of length…so it’s a measurement of smell?

Help us out here Subway.

Get Real, People! When was the last time your chicken, looked the same as the KFC ad, or your McDonalds burger resembled anything like the pictures on the board. What about age defying products, what ingredient must it have? Sunscreen. Hair shampoo that makes your hair look shinier, does it? If you order a footlong subway and you are not happy with the size, you just have to say, Sorry that isn’t a foot long, please cancel my order and I will go else where for lunch. Then walk out.
Its marketing. Get over it! If you don’t like it don’t shop there. How easy is that!

one of my feet is only 11 inches long – maybe they named it after that…

This is actually hilarious.

I’m sure subway will make this right just as soon as they put all the prices up by 1/11th!

I read that they first said it was shorter as it wasn’t baked the correct way… as for Macca’s 100% beef…. yes it is rump, t-bone, head, shoulders, knees and toes…and eyes, ears, hoof, tail…

You see them take the bread out and make it. If you’re not happy with the size why do you buy it? If you’re happy with an 11″ sub why have a whinge about another inch you don’t want?

I bags patenting the name Subway ElevenInchLong

Get the ACCC onto this. Or VCAT. Or VicHealth. Or ACMA. Or the ASB. Or the ACA. Or Adam Bandt, who is currently trying to live on $35 a week. Or get Julia Gillard to call an ‘en-quore-ey’.

Don’t let Hungry Jack’s off the hook, either. How can you hold their 4884 kJ Ultimate Double Whopper to account with an unmeasurable name like that?

And why are sushi rolls so short that you have to buy three?

Daniel (post 22) I’m pretty certain the McDonalds claim is that they use 100% Australian beef. i.e., sourced completely from Australian cattle.

Jam @ post 42, if that bakery is in Sydney, I’ll pass. Your super-filling contents may have a certain crunch to them that I’d rather avoid. Subway has gotten to where it is by offering fresh ingredients served in a hygienic way according to certain standards for a price.

Here they’ve let their standards in terms of understood amount fall and they deserve to be pilloried for it. I can’t believe Subway responded that way and have now left themselves open to being prosecuted for misleading advertising. What makes it worse for them is that they have never included a disclaimer about it being merely “descriptive”. You have to wonder whether there will eventually be a legal definition of what descriptive actually means if this ends up being prosecuted.

If footlong is not a measure of length, $8.95 is not a measure of currency!

Do they do a baloney footlong?

Subway have been trying unsuccessfully to help in the Obesity War

This just in: No one complaining here knows anything about baking bread. Bread not baked in a bread pan or mold varies in size. Both length and width, its just how things work. Short of using a bread pan and comple treeely changing the bread, there isn’t much of a way to get an exact size every single time. I’m amazed that this is a news story.

All they really have to do is show us all the photos of each time the roll comes out 13″ and then they have a right to say it’s approximate. I’m sure they’ll be more careful measuring now… oh, for at least a few weeks.

The only thing not baked to their standards is their ability to manage a crisis.

A sphincter says what?

Subway marketing are onto a winner:

“We’ve listened, and now our Footlong® is guaranteed to be an entire foot long! That’s the new Subway Footlong® foot long guarantee.”

As Lionel Hutz would say: “The most blatant case of false advertising since The Never Ending Story”

Subway came out of the traps saying that it was healthy food for healthy people (just look at me the ceo and ex fatty blah blah…)

They sell soda, chips and cookies ffs! Read up about “Pottengers Cats” and then look closely at the eyes of the pasty faced, fat kids walking around shopping malls, who are eating Subway, Macca’s and KFC etc Notice anything strange about their gaze? Give it a few more generations and they will be dropping like flies before they are 10 years of age.

Subway, like Macca’s and KFC: Killing your future kin.

TBH I would prefer to draw dicks on the Herald Sun than eat a footlong (11incher) from Subbers…

get used to the new world order , corporations rule, if you don’t like the food, its because the leaders you elected voted to poison its people with cancer,Some group of rich people dont care about what you eat as long as they dont eat it, you should be mad and since the government forces up the cost of liveing, your 1.00 chicken is 10.00 now, corporation would feed you grass if it had kfc spices on it, no genuine clothes , fake additives , plastic instead of metal, faux instead of fur, chrome metal is plastic, average price for a toy in canada at toysrus (TOY ZSAR U.S) 50.oo , i feel i am paying for americas recession, AMERICAN corporations leave no room for your children to start theyre own business, only work for them, all the cities in canada look the same now no individuallity, look at kfc all over the world ,it tasted better when it was just american not global

AMERICAN corporations leave. my people want to start they re own buisnesses and keep the profits in our country, not take it to your country, people with real food and products that are not break able plastic, my home average is 350000 because american corps built them , my food bill is high because american corps own them , my traveling is high because american corps own fuel, my car because american corps own them , out of a job? american corps own those , want your national sport forget it canada goes without sports if america strikes, they now getting our football, 2011 2012 grey cup saw our bc lions had only 2 canadian players and the rest american players, i was taken aback while watching them play the national anthem they kept going to a shot of the only canadian on bc, CONSERVATIVES ARE NOT FOR THE PEOPLE , they sell out theyre own people.

I think this thread has gone viral. Oh and mass market. (I bet Subway and KFC would love to get an advert on this page…)

I worked at Subway in 2001. No size issues back then. Only once did I have to offer new bread to a customer after he said the one I cut him resembled a “used condom”.

D Wilson, your tin foil hat is ready.

BTW, Subway first came to Australia when two high school kids at Hawker College in the ACT came back from a trip to the USA and saw a business opportunity. They bought the entire Australia-wide franchise license for a song thanks to loans from their relos. They were multi-millionaires by the time they were 30, about 12 years later. Don’t know who has the franchise license now.

Instead of thrashing at the waves, how about you take your future in hand and do something about it?

(Have to agree with him on the bit about the Conservative forces though. Any coincidence that the Republicans and LNP behave exactly the same? No, because they exchange young people as interns and ideas as well).

Subway seems to have a problem with words, measurements and standards. Remember this? https://mumbrella.com.au/subway-found-to-have-misled-public-with-chicken-fillet-that-is-really-processed-meat-99919

Time for the ACCC to step in perhaps.

I remember a time when we would be discerning. By way of example and context let’s illustrate that subway carries the odour of turd and is staffed by students. Why would a a discerning person expect more that this? Seriously.

Now we write blogs spouting rubbish about misleading advertising. What have we become, blameless sheep?

I seems to recall reading about a movement, a little before my time, that believed in voting with the feet. Simply, if you dont like it, dont buy it. They’ll stop doing it. That’s how basic economics works.

Oh, and stop whinning. For god’s sake, stop whining. It’s more boring that the god-aweful sandwich for which there was at least thankfully less to eat.

Regardless of how long the bun is, the response by Subways will only inflame the conversation online & amplify the issue for the brand.

The response was clearly written by lawyers or senior managers who don’t understand effective communication.

This is the danger for brands today – not that consumers will point out that 100% quality control is impossible, but that they will inflame the situation themselves by throwing fuel on the fire, showing themselves to not be keeping the promise they’ve made to their customers.

My local subway had a sign up mid year saying “due to supply restraints, we are giving you less tomato”. Yet Coles & Woolies had plenty, for $9 a kg. Sign should have read, “expensive tomatoes are killing our margins, so we are adjusting”.

Maybe the ‘Footlong’ in the photo had just got out of the pool.

Wekk I just brought a footlong sub and measure it. It was 12 inches in size. Interestingly they cut it into two six subs. One was 7 inches and the other was 5 inches.

Did anyone actually think that the kid could have just squashed the sandwich to make it shorter? Its not hard to squash crappy Subway bread. But yeah, crap response from Subway. George C = hilarious.

I’ve had subs that look exactly like the one in the photo or worse. I’d say they have a bigger problem than a once-off procedural failure. The response has me intrigued – insistence that they can tell the bread is not standard because they have a procedure that prevents this from happening…(even though it DID happen)… and then going on to say that the length cannot be guaranteed as all processes differ. What is it Subway? Do you have uniformity or not? Are your processes standardised or not? Do you really care either way? Maybe the bosses need to eat their own product, and without the staff knowing who they are. Then you’ll find out what the customers actually get. Half the time my subs get squashed due to heavy handling by your staff, or they flatten it so aggressively when cutting it that it opens up to reveal bread surrounded by what were once the fillings. Methinks a change of attitude at the top would filter down and improve things, but that’s not how management works these days, as that would mean having to ‘manage’ and not just ‘run’ a business. Ah, common sense, wherefore art thou?

their response that it isn’t an indication of length was clearly at the behest of lawyers, who don’t have a bloody clue about PR and always make people and companies sound like even more dishonest muppets

Now we await McD’s similar response to their Quarter Pounder which has clearly shrunk and, one supsects, neither raw or cooked comes close to being a quarter pound of anything!!

On the Macca’s wrapper… it says “100% Australian Beef”… Is that 100% Australian OR 100% Beef?

@AdamS It is just a brand name. It could be Asian Chicken and they call still call it that!

It’s not the length but how you use it that counts?

To be fair, it looks like that American (illegal to sell imperial only measures in Australia) has squashed the roll.

McDonalds burgers are made from 100% beef, no fillers, no horse. Its made by mixing offcuts 50% lean and 50% fat.

Despite this topic probably having run its course, I measured my foot long sub yesterday (got it in Canberra). it was 31 cm. So that’s a tad over one foot in old talk. Was yummy too (ham and salad with mayo & hot chilli sauce, no cucumber)…….

@Beery with all the great food choices in Canberra you would think you would keep quiet about eating at Subway. I have heard though that beer dulls the senses of smell and taste, and leads to poor life choices.

Beer does lead to poor life choices.

Like deciding to live in Canberra, for starters.

Hmm, they are creative jibes, think of them all by yourself?

Subway’s claim RE “length” and “truth in advertising” amount to some Gen Y hipster-tard claiming that pics he’s stolen off the net, then altered with Adobe Illustrator or G.I.M.P., is “art”.

I think it is wrong the claim it was 11 inches. When I heard I went out and brought a sub just to test it. Many more people similarly tested it, including another person here. He reported what I found that it was about 12 inches. I am sure the net would be full of images of examples if many of the subs were 11 inches.

I also while measuring it, discovered that it was easy to squash the sub and make it 11 inches. It may have happened accidentally too while carrying it in the supplied bag. The original guy probably measured a squashed sub.

Here’s an idea. If your products don’t meet a minimum requirement, like the expectation of a footlong actually measuring a foot in length, you don’t sell them. Simple. Introduce some basic Quality Assurance, put the rejected items aside and donate then to charity at the close of business. I worked for an Australian bakery chain for 5 years and this was standard procedure. No excuses and no BS doublespeak.

OMG, next people will be claiming the QUARTER POUNDER isn’t actually a quarter of a pound! 😛