Quiznos: “Talking Baby”
Brand: Quiznos
Execution: TV
Link: (coming soon)
Target: Fast Foodies
Reviewer: David
Rating: *
Description:
A series of commercials highlighted by a talking baby.
What Works:
Well, first let us breathe a collective sigh of relief that there has been no reappearance of talking reptiles or vermin in the Quiznos ads. I don’t know what they were thinking of when they produced those spots but let’s just say that small fast-moving creatures are not what we want to be thinking about when we are ordering a sub.
The special effects used to make the child appear to talk are impressive as long as you haven’t seen a movie in, say, fifteen years.
What Doesn’t:
I spent several years at Coca-Cola trudging from one chain restaurant headquarters to another, meeting the guys (they are all men) who started chains. They have three things in common – they know how to pick real-estate, make food consistently in multiple locations and hire people who won’t steal from them. Very few of them seem to have any idea about why people actually come into their restaurants. On one very memorable day I had CEOs of two different chains in the same market tell me that obviously people came to them instead of the competition because the food was so great.
So Quiznos is not exactly going to war with the Masters of the Universe here. This is a category that has Subway trying to drop it’s first effective pitch guy in years, McDonalds forgetting that it’s about the family and Burger King only just rediscovering the one successful campaign that they’ve run in the past twenty-five years.
And still, Quiznos pulls high marks for advertising that makes you say “I will never get those 30 seconds of my life back.” I’ve watched the latest baby spot about five times and I cannot tell you what the brand position is supposed to be for the restaurant. And I’m a professional. I do this stuff for a living. Pity the hapless consumer caught between the talking baby and the quick cut product shots and flashing prices.
Here’s what I get from the spots:
1. Quiznos has subs
2. Quiznos really, really wants to get my attention
3. The food is cheap
4. Something in the food made that baby start talking like Bruce Willis
So I’m either indifferent or really scared.
Branding Bottom Line -
What are they thinking? Give me a simple, compelling proposition and show me why I shouldn’t just hit Taco Bell.