Subway's Jared Fogle: Corporations Must Vet Spokespeople

Subway is learning a very hard lesson about who it chooses as a national spokesperson.

There was apparently no investigation, no vetting, no extra work done when Jared Fogle appeared with his Subway story of weight loss way back in 1999.

Was the story of his porn business quashed by the advertising agency that found Fogle?  Doubtful.  It was simply a good pitch for Subway and that's all that mattered at the time.  No one investigated the college kid from Indiana.

While many of the college students at Indiana University knew Fogle's history from the beginning, his porn business story did not make headlines.  In fact, even when the story came out about his porn business from VH1 way back in 2007, no one raised an eyebrow.  The Subway campaign was working, so no one cared.  And the story was not shared on national media.  For some reason the story was dismissed as tabloid journalism because it came from an anonymous source.  Well, who in their right mind would want to go on the record with his or her name connecting them to Jared Fogle's porn business in college?

Here's the original VH1 article:  BWE Exclusive: Jared Fogle, The Pornography Guy - May 9, 2007

Now, jump ahead to 2015.  Here's the new headline.

Ex-Subway pitchman Jared Fogle to plead guilty to paying for sex with minors - Washington Post.

The most shocking thing in this latest article is that Fogle allegedly increased his activity involving child pornography and sex acts with minors dating back to 2007, just after the original article was published about his porn business in college.  Or... is that when the investigation started?  If that's when the investigation started, why did the investigation take so long?  Why were charges not filed until 2015?  Does it take that long to prove someone is committing criminal acts against children? Who finally triggered the investigation and charges?

Don't believe any of it?  Shocked?  Don't be.

Fogle has apparently agreed to plead guilty to the charges he's facing.  He's agreed to pay $1.4 million in restitution to his victims.  And he's facing 5 to 12 and a half years in prison.  Potentially, due to the number of child victims involved, according to the Washington Post, he could have faced up to 20 years for the child pornography charges and up to 30 years for the child sex charges. Running concurrently, he could have faced 50 years in prison.

TMZ is the first media outlet to label Fogle's future by using the words "convicted pedophile."  That is serious business and it tarnishes Subway's brand forever.

Subway has parted ways with Fogle.  But is it enough?  What permanent damage does it do the brand?  No one likes a person who commits crimes against children.  Fogle is not going to have an easy time in prison, that's for certain.  But I cannot imagine that no one knew.  When money is involved, how many people around Fogle turned their heads the other way and for how long?  Clearly, people knew dating back to college.

Corporations need to do complete vetting on public spokespeople before they embark on what could potentially be a professional relationship that lasts a decade or longer.  Learn from Subway.  Your brand depends on a full background investigation prior to offering the deal of a lifetime.