Having a celebrity endorser has a lot of upside potential. Look no further than NIKE and their relationship with Michael Jordan. The Air Jordan shoe model was a good shoe, but made great through its association with #23.
But even Jordan has some rough waters, when he had some accusations for gambling issues. Jordan righted that ship and, even now years after retirement, is a prolific commercial pitchman.
Which leads to the question of Jared Fogel from Subway. Jared is a well known guy internationally as the person that lost a lot of weight eating Subway. For me living in Indiana, he is also a local guy that is pretty well known too.
This last week has been tough on Jared. Police raided his home in suburban Indianapolis in connection with a child porn investigation. As of today, no one is directly connecting Fogel to child porn, but rather an associate of his and the Jared Foundation. But not all of the information is out yet.
Gawker.com reported this week that Fogel allegedly ran a lending library for porn while a student at Indiana University. In fact, according to their article, that side business was a part of what led him to start eating Subway sandwiches all of the time.
How Subway handles this image crisis with their spokesman will be very interesting to watch. Jared has meant a lot to that brand. Remember a few years ago, he had a diminished role as spokesman and their sales dropped prompting his return. Suspending him as spokesman is the smart choice for Subway, and if they find any link to illegal activities by Fogel rest assured he will be completed dropped.
If they find no wrong-doings by Fogel, can the brand still associate with him? I think that is a tough reality that Subway and Jared are facing. Right or wrong, newscasts, Facebook posts, news stories and blog posts (like this one) are casting a conversation about child pornography and a brand spokesman. That is bad for Jared, and thus very bad for his ability to be a pitchman for any product.
Jared's hometown newspaper, The Indianapolis Star has a good story in today's edition about whether the image of Jared and the brand of Subway can be repaired.
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