The Subway Sub Soared, But Quiznos Was Too Heavy to Kick

Ad agencies are coming up with rich sources of quality content and ideas...and Quizno Subs is getting sued by Subway over their agency's latest idea...allow users to submit videos attacking their competitor's sandwiches. I laughed out loud when I read the topics of some of the 115 videos sent in trying to claim the $10,000 prize. The New York Times had the story.

"One of the videos shows a wife arriving home with a Quiznos sub for her husband, and a Subway sandwich for the dog. . One showed two submarine fashioned as sandwiches, with the one representing Subway being obliterated because it did not have enough meat. In a third two men punt sandwiches across a parking lot, the Subway one soars high, the Quiznos one is so heavy that the man falls over when he kicks it.

When the suit was first brought up to Quiznos and their agency, they claimed the same exemption from legal action that YouTube, that user generated content is protected because of the Communications Decency Act, which immunizers 'providers of interactive computer services from responsibility for user postings on their sites...the same way AOL says they're not liable for the scurrilious things people say about eachother in its chat rooms.

At the root of Subway's beef is that their competitor egged contestants on to slam them in their homemade ads. If Subway wins, there will be new rules on the wild frontier of home-styled product attack ads.

You Think It's Expensive Here to Ride?

I'm spending part of today with my family in Blawenburg NJ, the town and the house where I grew up. Last night it was nice to see two of my sisters and other relatives gathered around a huge table. I've got that familiar pre-trip feeling, trying to make sure I don't forget something important.

On the bus back from New York, I read the New York Post, and found a story that had European tourists gushing about how much they like the city's subways. A fare hike is coming that will increase the cost of multi-ride cards but leave the tourist's one-time rides at $2. "We're happy with the subway here," said Italian tourists Ilaria Turi and her sister, "They're better than the ones in Rome."

Another visitor updated the cost of such a trip in Belfast. That would be $5 for a single trip. In London, said another traveler, Daniel Feaster, 25, the cost would be $8. In Paris another traveler said the cost of a ride is $2.20.

For locals who want to save a bit, the MTA gives out a 15 percent discount if they spend more than $7 on a multi-ride metro card. The paper congratulated Mayor Mike for standing up to the 'populist poseurs in the media and demagogues in City Hall by passing a rate hike that is fair--and still a better deal than most overseas city's fares.