Thursday, February 19, 2009

An important update on fast-food mascots

In the Subway post from yesterday, a commenter mentioned that Quiznos had/has a rat for a mascot. Heh. Well, I dunno. There was the Quiznos in the complex at 19-23 St. Mark's ... once home to the Dom, the Electric Circus, etc. (No need to get into that!) Anyway, the St. Mark's Quiznos closed in 2007...I've never been to a Quiznos...and have no idea what their mascot is...So I actually looked it up...and unless this is some wacky spoof, then Quiznos really did have a rat for a mascot...one with crazy-ass eyes and a bowler hat...accompanied by something with a guitar and pirate hat.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

They were called "The Spongemonkeys,"..... and I loved them soooooooo much.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Alex. I just did a search for spongemonkeys -- wow, apparently I missed this moment of pop culture advertising...

Slate did a piece on them:

http://www.slate.com/id/2095868/

The fellow in Slate gave the ads an A. I'll go with the F.

Anonymous said...

It was done by a guy named Joel who lives in England. It used to be just a cute little website he did that few knew about. Now he has done commercials, has a band, and seems to make a living off of it. Here is the link:

http://rathergood.com/

My personal favorite is Iggy Pop's Ocelot Shop:

http://rathergood.com/ocelot

He also had a great Led Zeppelin Viking Kittens short that he must have received a cease and desist for, since it disappeared off his website years ago. Not that you can't find it other places now:

http://www.public.asu.edu/~mharp/viking_kittens/VikingKitten.htm

Anonymous said...

i remember that quiznos on st. marks. it was slapped with numerous DOH violations and eventually shuttered. i think they had a rat problem, so quite ironic.

Anonymous said...

i, too, give the ad an F. who wants to think about deranged rats nibbling on your sandwich?

on another note, i now have a craving for a quizno's sub!

Anonymous said...

I just changed by grade to F-

Anonymous said...

but seriously, i hope it's a spoof. otherwise what sort of idiotic ad agency would put together a rat mascot for a food company?

Jill said...

I ate Quiznos twice, the first in Montana, and it was a seriously superior and delicious sandwich. Or maybe I was just really hungry because ... well,l I was in Montana and it is a place where you can eat a lot more, those wide open spaces or something. But after that meal, which we ate in the car on the way to some camping trip, my whole family became raving lunatics about how much better Quiznos was than Subway.

The next time I ate was somewhere in NY- wasn't there one on W14th St? Well I can't remember. Anyways, it sucked. Must be the NY water.

Anonymous said...

Man, are you kidding?! Joel is great!

"Angry Kittens" video (The Vines) is the best.
http://rathergood.com/vines

This stuff is what Flash REALLY should be used for.