February 20th is also Sandwich Shop Day

On February 20, 2001 Orlando Montagu (a descendant of the fourth Earl of Sandwich and the inventor of sandwiches) opened the Earl of Sandwich shop in London, England.  Trading on the family name and heritage he did so to help support their country estate in Dorset, England ( a tourist stop) and also to support a few chosen charities. What started out as a small sandwhich shop in London has grown into a large conglomerat including partnering with Disney and airline terminals around the globe.  

Another famous sandwich shop that has made a tremendous name for itself is Subway. Subway started out in 1965 in Connecticut and has grown to more than 30,000 stores in 87 countries becoming the world’s largest submarine sandwich shop.  If you watch commercials you may have seen the ones with Jared the Sandwich Guy from Subway . But you may not know the “back story” of how Jared came to be known as The Sandwich Guy from Subway.

It all started in April of 1999 when Ryan Coleman, a former dorm mate of Jared Fogel wrote an article in the In the Indiana Daily Student about how Jared had lost weight by inventing his own diet which he called his “Subway diet.” Duane Swierczynski, a writer for Men’s Health, chanced upon the article and after locating Jared (he was in Iceland on vacation)  included the “Subway sandwich diet” in an article entitled, “Stupid Diets. . . that Work!”

In the article he wrote about how Jared had become obese by eating junk food and not exercising. Because his favorite place to eat was “Subway” and Jared was on a mission to shed more than 200 pounds. He succeeded and lost 245 pounds in a year. This article caught the eye of Bob Ocwieja, a Chicago-are Subway Franchisee who read the story and shared it with Richard Coad, the creative director at Subway’s Chicago advertising agency.

They created a commercial including Jared as the “star.”  The first commercial aired on January 1st, 2000.  The commercial was a huge success because the day after it aired, the advertising agency began receiving calls from USA Today, ABC News, Fox News, and Oprah.

Shortly after that, the national advertising director for Subway called and asked if the spot could be aired nationally. The results: Subway’s 2000 sales exceeded those of the previous year by 18 percent. In 2001, they rose another 16% making Jared a Celebrity and Subway lots of money!

(source: Wikipedia.com and Subway.com)

Other noteworthy happenings on February 20th in history:

1792 – The United States Postal Service was created

1949 –The  1st International Pancake Race was held

1962 – John Glenn is the 1st American to orbit Earth (Friendship 7)

More great marketing ideas can be found in the Quirky Marketing Calendar ~ How to Use Zany and Non-traditional Holidays to Promote Your Business 365 Days a Year!

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