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September 6, 2004
Diet Battle Between Bread and Muscle
By NAT IVES
Jared Fogle has been portrayed as an avatar of weight loss ever since
January 2000, when Subway restaurants began advertising his story of
losing 245 pounds while eating low-fat Subway sandwiches.
But now, a commercial advertising the Bowflex home workout system sold
by the Nautilus Group is taking a dig at Jared. Mr. Fogle, the
commercial implies, could be in better shape.
In the spot, which has been appearing on cable networks like ESPN2 and
the Discovery Channel, a well-built, bare-chested man named Ches
Gessner describes, not to mention displays, the virtues of rigorous
Bowflex use.
At the end of the commercial, Mr. Gessner, now shirted, takes a seat
on his Bowflex. "I know other guys who ate sandwiches and lost a lot
of weight," he says, "but I don't see them on TV with their shirt
off."
Companies have long challenged their competitors in television
commercials, but rarely with so much "sand in the face" machismo. Ron
Arp, a spokesman at Nautilus in Vancouver, Wash., said the jab to Mr.
Fogle's ribs was meant to be tongue-in-cheek.
Mr. Fogle was traveling and could not be reached. But Subway rose to
defend him.
"Jared lost 245 pounds by cutting down on his fat and exercising,"
said Kevin Kane, a spokesman at Subway in Milford, Conn., owned by
Doctor's Associates. "It wasn't just the sandwiches." NAT IVES
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