As many Americans struggle to keep their weight-related New Year’s resolutions, Subway has teamed up with Tae-Bo progenitor and fitness guru Billy Blanks for a new promotion.
Blanks has bestowed his seal of approval for Subway’s Low Fat Fresh Value Meals, which currently features seven sandwiches with under six grams of fat. The joint promotion rewards Subway customers with coupons for the popular Tae-Bo videos and Subway sandwiches.
The partnership will kick off with a media campaign in which Blanks will star in Subway’s first celebrity endorsed commercial. The ad will feature him taking his Tae-Bo students to a Subway restaurant after a good workout and issuing rapid fire commands (“eat, eat, eat!”) to the hungry group. Blanks hopes to help weight-conscious consumers meet their goals by advertising the advantages of complimenting exercise with meals from Subway’s “7 under 6” menu.
Tae-Bo, the workout program combining Tae Kwon Do and Aerobics, has sold over $400 million in related merchandise in the past two years and has made a major martial artist star out of the man who invented the program.
Subway positions itself as the low-fat alternative in the quick-serve industry and even boasts a successful diet regimen, citing a customer who lost an excessive amount of weight by eating only their submarine sandwiches.