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NBC’s ‘Chuck’ Saved By Sandwiches, Not Fans
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Tom Cheredar   |  

So before we all rejoice with the security that we’ll get to see Kung Fu action Chuck Bartowski on Chuck next fall on NBC, it’s important to understand one thing: Fanboy outcry played a very little role in the actual save.

Subway, however, did.

Yes, I am referring to the world’s largest sandwich artist franchise. It seems that Big Mike’s favorite, the chicken teriyaki $5 foot long deal, was paid for entirely by a special advertising deal between Subway and NBC, according to the NY Times.

The special sponsorship with Subway is enabling NBC to bring back the series, executives said… The partnership was suggested to Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, by Subway executives, who were enthused about the special marketing opportunities the series afforded the chain…

They also report that the deal was struck prior to their 2009 fall schedule renewal announcement, which means the “social media campaign” by Zachary Levi and Adam Baldwin asking fans to buy a sub in support of saving the show from cancellation, was actually a clever PR stunt. Of course this doesn’t mean the show was never on the chopping block. In all likelihood, it probably was. Both companies were probably waiting out the response to fairly assess how much a product placement deal like this would be worth.

Had either company come forth with an informed explanation about what they were doing, they probably wouldn’t have been able to grab headlines from CNN and echoed on digg and reddit through popular blogs. Those headlines were crucial for informing as many Chuck fans as possible about their STUNT to save the show.

To what extent Subway product placement will appear in the new season is still being determined. The integrity of a program can typically be preserved through its writing, but as we saw last season, even scripted dialog is an option to move product. (More Ovaltine kids?!?)

There is some speculation about Chuck’s girlfriend on the show, the uncomfortably attractive undercover CIA Agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski), will switch her cover job from being a Soft-Serve Yogurt employee to a Subway sandwich artist. (Prior to Yogurt, Strahovski’s character was a German hot dog server aka Weiner girl). Logically, this would be a natural aspect to utilize the Subway placement without altering the creativity enough to matter.

For Subway, this is an excellent, even brilliant use of their ad budget chiefly because I am a fan of Chuck and enjoy the hell out of a foot-long grilled chicken on wheat. Although, I am nervous about how much of the content will be sacrificed to keep the show going beyond the 13-episodes ordered (basically half a season).

7 Comments »

  1. After reading this article 3 times, the core argument seems to be that Subway had already struck a marketing sponsorship with NBC for Chuck that resulted in its renewal prior to Finale and Footlong grassroots campaign for Chuck. However, I think your citations do not prove this at all and in fact are gross generalizations that ignore the real negotiations that went on. Even if Subway was already in negotiations with NBC, the Chuck finale was April 27, 2009. The NBC “infronts” was on or around May 4, 2009. The Finale and a Footlong campaign could very well have been the final push to convince Subway to agree to a larger sponsorship for the show. Nowhere in your cited articles did it say that Subway had already concluded negotiations with NBC or that it utilized its money to create a PR event with Zachary Levi. Your conclusions are disingenuous to the hard working Chuck fans fighting for its renewal. In fact, Zach Levi credited one fan in particular for suggesting the idea, not Subway. Anything else is sheer wanton speculation. You need more proof, instead you came up with a conclusion and then tried to back it up.

    Comment by ttrnet — May 28, 2009 @ 5:42 pm

  2. I agree, this idea that Subway somehow knew ahead of time that they were going to sell a bunch of subs to chuck fans is ridiculous.

    The fan campaigns started easily a month to six weeks before the finale.

    I was writing letters to NBC several weeks before the end of the season and people were talking about eating subway back then.

    The girl that gets credit for starting the subway campaign might have started a big leg of the campaign, but that whole idea of eating subway was all over the place on the internet fan sites I went to way back before Zach went and actually ate Subway with the fans. Like a month beforehand.

    The idea that Subway got in ahead of all this with renewal money on the table is just wrong.

    Comment by dave — May 28, 2009 @ 10:18 pm

  3. You know what? I don’t care what came first, the post by the person on my TWOP board suggesting this campaign, or subway’s decision to support Chuck.

    They saved my favorite show. While Chuck’s on the air, I’m going to be having my Subway Mondays to thank them.

    Comment by Groo — May 28, 2009 @ 11:41 pm

  4. The sandwich campaign was NOT a “stunt” by Subway, NBC, or anyone else related to the show. And it was AFTER the word-of-mouth promotion (by the fans) that Subway decided to continue sponsorship and NBC decided to renew the show.

    This was all weeks before the finale of Chuck, and before final negotiations.

    The evolution of the fan effort is very well documented in the forums of the website TelevisionWithoutPity.com. Check it out; the idea and organization started there.

    http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showforum=1009

    Comment by Erica — May 29, 2009 @ 3:28 am

  5. Zachary Levi must have already known this when he pulled this ‘Subway stunt’ at a recent covention he attended in the UK …

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDtePZ1MFT0

    Comment by Tim Wilson — May 29, 2009 @ 9:01 am

  6. Nice try at cya for the NBC execs.

    NBC has made it clear that they wish to control or harness all media including guerrilla campaigns like the fan drive to patronize Subway.

    To claim they had a plan all along is pathetic. NBC is #4. Number Four. And sliding. The are not that smart, creative or original. Saving “Chuck” for 13 episodes had little to do with NBC acting any differently than they have throughout their slide. They’ve killed the Tonite Show and placed Leno in a slot where his irrelevance will set a new bar for an underperforming primetime hour.

    Lets imagine for a moment that NBC execs actually did work this out. That would make their otherwise consistent blunders shine more brightly as an inept leadership knocked a home run in a minor matter while its core business continues to falter.

    NBC Universal, in its current structure, is a dying entity.

    Subway, on the other hand responds to what its customers want, and we want Morgan at Subway. We want “Chuck”.

    Comment by Nick Challis — May 29, 2009 @ 12:23 pm

  7. @ttrnet The “core” of my ARTICLE (note, not argument) was that Subway was willing to pay for non traditional advertising. That being said, any and all attempts to strengthen the possibility that they would pony up enough cash to keep the show going means the show’s producers knew this, and so did NBC.

    Don’t doubt me go read the NY Times article about non traditional advertising in TV.

    Also, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… it’s probably a troll flaming about the obvious.

    Comment by TechGOnzo — May 29, 2009 @ 7:57 pm

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