Subway Wipes Jared Fogle From Website

Longtime spokesman suspended after FBI raid
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 8, 2015 1:32 AM CDT
Subway Wipes Jared Fogle From Website
A photo of Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle is seen on a menu board hanging inside one of its locations in St. Louis.   (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Jared Fogle hasn't been charged with anything, but after an FBI raid on his home yesterday, Subway didn't waste any time in cutting its ties with its longtime spokesman. The company announced that they had "mutually agreed to suspend their relationship due to the current investigation"—which is believed to be linked to the child-porn arrest of a former Fogle employee—and his presence, including his history with the company and a game called "Jared's Pants Dance," was scrubbed from the Subway website within hours, the Los Angeles Times reports. Fogle's lawyer says his client has been cooperating with authorities and looks forward to the conclusion of the investigation, reports KTLA.

Experts say the Subway move looks like good crisis management. "If something happens to his reputation, that is going to spill over to the brand," a marketing professor at the USC Marshall School of Business tells the Times. "That is why many brands use mascots. People sometimes get into trouble, and if they do, they take the brand with them." The former Fogle employee, ex-Jared Foundation chief Russell Taylor, has been charged with producing and possessing child pornography, and court records state that two thumb drives found in his home office are linked to Fogle or the foundation, reports the Indianapolis Star. (More Jared Fogle stories.)

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