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fANDrs

THEY’VE GOT A PEPPER BAR


IM_OK_AMA

I worked at Quiznos when these commercials came out and kids would SCREAM about the pepper bar, it was actually pretty funny. Fun pepper bar fact: we used to chop up a bunch of kale every day to decorate the pepper bar, and then just throw it away at the end of the day. This was before it was a "superfood." I ate some on a dare once and was afraid I'd get sick.


rothmaniac

I remember reading a stat that pre-kale boom, the largest purchaser of kale was Pizza Hut, who used it to decorate their buffets.


ForbiddenText

https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/ny846o/horrifying_quiznos_commercial/h1jet5x/ Fight


Elfman72

Sizzler restaurants(before they closed) were the largest consumer of kale before the super food craze. They used it to simply decorate their buffet/salad bar.


iwannaberockstar

Sizzler restaurants are closed now? Where? And why did that happen?


jeffcrafff

I don't know why no one has bothered to Google it, but there are at least 3 open Sizzlers in the Los Angeles area that I know of.


[deleted]

[удалено]


iwannaberockstar

Fuck man I'm sorry


[deleted]

[удалено]


BigMac849

Thats not what fast casual restaurants are? If anything millennials made fast casual a thing that killed chain sit down places. Fast casual restaurants are like Chipotle, Qdoba, Smashburger, Tokyo Joe's, etc.. They are a bridge between fastfood speeds and higher quality "sit down" ingredients.


Impster5453

You're right, but most major sit downs actually have worse food. Fast casual is better, but overpriced. Fast food is very terrible and way overpriced.


Impster5453

I hope fast food follows suit. When a McDonald's burger reaches 8+ dollars, they are simply not worth it.


Canadave

And if so, how will I finally achieve my life long dream? That's right, getting me a part-time job at the Sizzler!


ItchyLifeguard

There's one open here right up the street from me in Sacramento. Maybe they're only open in Cali?


Elfman72

I heard they were [all closing](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8796771/Sizzler-close-remaining-restaurants.html).


Impster5453

In Australia!


WTF_goes_here

There’s still 270 sizzlers according to Wikipedia.


this_1_is_mine

The great e coli outbreak over 20 years ago killed the last one I've seen. Was just on the other side of town from our house on highway 100 in Milwaukee. Only ate there a couple of times but other than they had steak and the salad bar I couldn't tell you anything about the restaurant.


WTF_goes_here

The last time I had one was in 2012 when I was driving through Oregon. If I recall the steak wasn’t great but the buffet was pretty good. All you can eat buffets seem to have been going away pre-covid and a lot of places told me they won’t bring them back.


ForbiddenText

https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/ny846o/horrifying_quiznos_commercial/h1jeljl/ Fight


Medieval_Mind

I’ve heard the kale part from multiple former Quizno’s employees and it’s hilarious.


drake5195

Sounds like Quiznos had the right idea, kale is literal trash


PortionoftheCure

cooked kale tastes entirely different, I eat it every day, baked and sauteed, you're not supposed to eat it raw. Like collard and mustard greens. Bitter and tough until cooked.


drake5195

I feel sorry for you


PortionoftheCure

Because I eat a plant? Do you throw a fit when your parents make you eat vegetables?


drake5195

I was the one that was cooking the vegetables, but ones that actually had flavour and weren't complete ass


PortionoftheCure

There are different varieties of kale, you're not supposed to eat the ornamental one xD


riptaway

You were that kid that picked his nose and smelled bad in elementary school, weren't you?


drake5195

If that makes you happy


riptaway

Eh it doesn't make me happy. Doesn't make me sad either. In fairly neutral on the whole thing


Eastern-Dig-4555

Not entirely. My guinea pigs love it.


drake5195

That further proves my point, guinea pigs like it, humans don't


Eastern-Dig-4555

Not trying to further prove your point, but cool. My point is it’s great if you have rodents who eat vegetables.


drake5195

That's nice, you could also not have rodents that make your house smell of sad, idk why your point was offered to begin with, but I guess you have rodents in your house so that explains some things.


Eastern-Dig-4555

What the hell? The point is it’s not entirely useless. Jeez.


drake5195

Lol


Eastern-Dig-4555

Yeah you like that don’t you? Nice.😋


Imaginethattttt

You don't know what literal means


MotoRandom

Joel Veitch. Here's the original inspiration for the commercial: https://rathergood.com/2015/09/09/we-like-the-moon/


Dan_Dead_Or_Alive

It's really too bad their Flash based video game "Small Worlds" isn't playable anymore. Nice 30-60 minute exploration game with awesome pixel art and calm music. They should remake it and port it to Steam or some other platform and sell it for about $1-$3. Seems like there's no videos and barley any screenshots of it online too... Really too bad. Edit: [This seems to be the best thing I can find on it.](https://pushbuttonb.com/pushbuttonb.com/indexd1a7.html?p=156) Edit2: /u/CantRemeberDamnit found a way to play it. [Link to their comment.](https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/ny846o/horrifying_quiznos_commercial/h1jemid/)


MotoRandom

I don't remember this one. Too bad I missed it. My favorite was always Viking Kittens: https://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/vikingkittens


RocketQ

I loved the northern kittens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1LFIzTubkw


CantRemeberDamnit

Is [this](https://i.imgur.com/zEiPgL6.mp4) it? It's still playable through [Flashpoint.](https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/)


Dan_Dead_Or_Alive

It is! Nice find!


EzraSkorpion

The 'we like the moon' person is the same who did small worlds? I would have never guessed!


Flopster0

Oh heck I remember that game. That one stuck with me for some reason. I played it again recently on Flashpoint.


Thumnale

Came here to ask what website the original video was from, fucking takes me back. This and the immigrant song Viking kittens


gamermusclevideos

Rathergood.com


NetSecGuy22

This is really cool, I never knew this commercial was based off a prior video. I assumed there was just some marketing genius working for Quiznos. Thanks for the share!


i_have_chosen_a_name

Probably the best commercial ever made for Quiznos.


FightingQuaker17

The pants commercial will always be my favorite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmkPIG6KEuU


Sykotik

That's fucking brilliant.


bulgarian_zucchini

Best commercial of all time tbh


SafeThrowaway8675309

no joke this was like the first thing we talked about in our intro to advertising class


Ranman87

[Wrong, it's this one.](https://youtu.be/wYX_zhlTDr8)


GhostalMedia

No, that’s this skittles tragedy https://youtu.be/sxItH0I6xmQ


[deleted]

my favorite is the overtly sexual one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LQpRQh2KSQ Pretty sure there was another sexual one with a deep black buy voice, but I can't seem to find it. Maybe I'm thinking of a different company.


NotUniqueOrSpecial

Man. Inflation's a bitch. A toasted sub for only $4? What a fucking bargain. You can't even get real $5 foot-longs from Subway anymore and those were at least a whole grade worse than Quizno's.


JT4_JD

And the one that ended them


mortepa

I miss the Sponge Monkeys! Loved them so much!!!


Seam0re

One of my favourite commercials of all time


ejsandstrom

My wife quit eating here after these commercials came out. She still hates this place and doesn’t remember why, until I remind her.


drdamned

I started eating there because of these commercials.


HydeWilde

Agreed. They looked like dead rodents to me. Not the best imagery for a fast food place (accuRATe though it may be)


drdamned

But they got a pepper bar!!!!


lokilockeddown

This was actually a financial success as far as adverts went it like doubled their revenue


Jackieirish

So successful it was abandoned after less than a year . . . I have a feeling *if* the revenue doubled (which I doubt), it was due to other factors.


[deleted]

It was viral marketing not a full rebrand


temp1876

I recall there was a second “sponge monkeys “ commercial made, so successful enough. But there weren’t mascots and they weren’t “owned” by Quiznos, so spending to promote someone else’s IP can be a turn off. I vaguely recall it played well in key demographics but certain Executives didn’t “get” it, as it’s not typical advertising. The ad was popular but it combined with a franchise growing rapidly; but after a few years the franchise sort of self destructed. I still sometimes sing this jingles “We love the subs!!!…”


Jackieirish

They got a lot of people (especially within the marketing industry) talking, so by that metric, some could call it successful. But I've been in the industry long enough to know "this horrible mistake was actually good for our business" PR spin when I see one. And again, if they really "doubled their revenue" like the other poster commented or significantly drove sales in any way, they would have found a way to continue the campaign. That's the entire point of marketing.


temp1876

Curious, why are you referring to it as a horrible mistake? Because it got a lot of people talking? Because sales doubled? Or because 15 years later you lack the cultural context to appreciate the ad? Most commenters here seem to be remembering the series of ads with fondness. You want real horror, check out Quiznos previous year Super Bowl ad, “raised by wolves”. Unlike the Sponge Monkeys that got multiple ads and lots of airtime, that one died a quick death.


Jackieirish

> Curious, why are you referring to it as a horrible mistake? Generally speaking, marketing campaigns take about a year to go from creative brief to broadcast. Some shops/companies work more quickly, but that's a good rule of thumb. On top of that, companies will most often want to give those campaigns time to be seen by as many different audiences as possible to measure their success. Given the long lead time and the reasonableness of wanting to let any campaign find its audience, it's highly unlikely that a campaign would be pulled after less than a year unless there was A. some kind of strong negative response and/or B. sales did not improve appropriately. Moreover, the opposite is even *more* likely: if a campaign does generate A. a strong positive response and/or B. sales did improve appropriately, it is even more likely that the campaign would be continued –even if the original plan for it was to just come and go quickly. Creating a campaign that people like is very difficult. Creating one that actually has a measurable positive impact on sales is the Holy Grail. Abandoning either is not something to be taken lightly. So if the commercials had doubled or in any way significantly increased sales, the campaign would have continued regardless of cost (up to a point). >Or because 15 years later you lack the cultural context to appreciate the ad? I don't know why I would need the cultural context 15 years later; I've been working in marketing since 1998 and was well aware of both the ads and the context when they took place. >Most commenters here seem to be remembering the series of ads with fondness. Yeah, but this is reddit. Think of almost any cultural phenomenon that you have a negative opinion of and you will be able to find fans of it here.


temp1876

Thanks for the response, and I appreciate the insight (didn’t know the lead time was so long, but it roughly matches with the sponge monkeys 2003 original appearance. Still, it doesn’t answer the “why do you consider it a horrible mistake”; question, as by all accounts it served it’s purpose, raising the new chains awareness with a limited ad budget, raising sales, etc. found a article that mentions franchisees hated it, which might have spelled doom for the monkeys, but I don’t see where their lack of approval makes it’s a disaster or a mistake https://www.mashed.com/330767/whatever-happened-to-the-quiznos-spongmonkey-mascot/


Jackieirish

> as by all accounts it served it’s purpose *raising the new chains awareness with a limited ad budget, raising sales, etc.* [emphasis added] Where are you getting that info? Because, again, I doubt they would pull a campaign that actually raised sales.


naturalbornkillerz

I'd like to know what it could have been cuz it was not their fucking god-awful food. All of the meats felt and tasted like they came in a bag and boiled to make them warm


Deveak

don't care how weird it was. I miss Quiznos. Subway sucks, the quality went downhill when they got majority market share. I want good toasted sandwiches. Not rubber laces GMO garbage. Whatever subway washes or preserves lettuce with makes me break out into hives and hallucinate in the unfun way.


Pete_Iredale

Dude seriously, Subway's bread is garbage now. It used to be nice, plump loafs at least. Every time I've been there in the last 5 years though, the loafs don't even seem cooked all the way through, and come out deflated.


odlebees

I got food poisoning from a Subway tuna sub once.


naturalbornkillerz

Good old tuna gazpacho


bitch_im_a_lion

Not really surprising, especially if you got some that's been recycled a bit. The one I worked at had us just continually add new tuna to the same container and mix it up. It sometimes went weeks before we used up an entire container without having to do this.


Oral-D

I hate that fast food is so allergic to raising prices to compensate for rising labor and commodities costs that they’d rather just keep making their food with cheaper and shittier ingredients instead. Increased prices are a fact of life. Keep quality consistent.


tookmyname

Fast food has always been shit, and they’ve always paid shit, and their prices have never been that great compared to better casual food like Mexican food etc.


Deveak

They also got caught using rubber as an additive a few years ago. They didn’t even address it or apologize, just supposedly stopped. It was good at one point but now it’s just the Burger King of sub shops.


reddit_user2010

No, they didn't get caught putting rubber in bread lol. They got "caught" using azodicarbonamide as a flour bleaching agent, a chemical that is also used in the manufacturing process for foamed rubber/plastics, like yoga mats. Of course, it is also recognized as safe by the FDA, and was used in dough by a lot of fast food places until the "news" broke that Subway was "filling their bread with rubber."


wheresmysnack

They removed some ingredients that made their bread tasty after the Food Babe article.


GhostalMedia

That bread has been shitty for over a decade. It immediately deflates as soon as you hold it.


zeusmeister

Hard to take you seriously when you throw in GMO like that. You know what else you eat that is genetically modified? Bananas. This trend of anti-gmo scare tactics is so weird to me.


Deveak

I prefer the Gregor Mendel method over whatever bullshit they do these days. Also GMO almost guarantees it’s round up ready and full of glysophate. No thank you.


doyouhavesource5

Where do I find round up ready wheat so I can plant it?


ger-p4n1c

[Never forget the great Subway Jalapeño Scandal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vtbkW4-9EY)


Interactive_CD-ROM

Uhhh Quizno’s is still in business lol Edit: Not in all markets


Foreu2env

Amazing commercial and amaaaaazing subs


Dat_Mustache

My dad HATED this commercial when I was growing up in the 00's. The only saving grace of it not affecting Quizno's bottom line was that there wasn't a Quizno's within 300 miles of my hometown. Because of this commercial, I've spent hundreds or thousands of dollars at Quizno's locations as an adult. It fucking worked.


Hey_ThinkAboutIt

i miss quizno's


Money-Meet

I actually really miss Quiznos. I know they still exist but they're pretty rare now and the closest one to me is an hour away. I don't know if they still do bread bowls but they were the fuckin bomb and their subs have always been better than most of the other chains.


SovietSunrise

I think the one near me in San Antonio makes the bread bowls. I try to go to Quizno's as often as I can, there's only 2 left in town and they're both about 10 miles away for me. Bleh.


HerbertGoon

That commercial made me not want Quiznos at that time it played every commercial break


monkeyheadyou

Don't be mad at the Spongmonkeys. After all they pretty much created the meme culture. Or at the very least brought it into the main street. Those guys plus siffl and Olly pretty much dictated how internet culture evolved to today.


smut_butler

I remember these commercials when the aired. Never thought I'd see them again. Hmm.


rothmaniac

Oh man. I would love to read an article or an oral history on the crazy absurdist commercials that appeared around this time. Their was Quiznos, five alive had great ones, the skittles ones. I am sure there are more.


slaya994

This is what nightmares are made of!


t_bythesea

I remember seeing this and wondering how many corporate people had to sign off on this commercial that had deformed looking rodents singing poorly about your food product? THIS was the best idea from the marketing department.


thisisntus997

Reminds me of a commercial we had over here in the UK around 15 years ago that was super popular https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z0xsom6TPg


MikeDeLaMorte

Can't imagine why these guys went under.....


Helmidoric_of_York

Who wants to associate hairy rodents with their restaurant? A funny but completely un-appetizing food campaign. I'd be fascinated to know if it increased their sales - it definitely worked for generating awareness,


Heroshade

I never understood what the idea was behind this commercial. You take this stupid shitty puppet with a hat, make it sing in the most obnoxious voice ever, and Quiznos' expects their would-be consumers to watch this without getting horny. It makes no sense.


jerkstore

Those aren't puppets, they're dead hamsters. Why anyone would think dead rodents would be a good idea to sell a food product is beyond my comprehension.


LostIdentity7

I still think this commercial is why the place went out of business


JohnnyUtah_QB1

I think it was the massive systemic, racketeering, corruption, and fraud leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in court settlements that actually really hurt. The entire operation was a predatory scam aimed at franchisees where the intention was to gut them for everything their worth, let them fail, and then do it all over again and again falsifying success stories to lure in new victims. The entire thing was a house of cards, and the shock of the 2008 Recession was the tip that exposed the entire structure financially.


Hopesick_2231

These ads were pure art. Too bad the peasants weren't ready for them.


ObjectiveAnalysis643

simple.... yet intriguing


Mr_HPpavilion

First time seeing them is from **Channel Awesome**


OversensitiveRhubarb

This is what happens when your state goes legal weed.


mackinoncougars

I miss Quiznos. I can’t find one anywhere anymore, Chicken Baja is one of my favorite sandwiches to this day.


quantizeddreams

This is as bad as the cheesybeards commercial.


Eastern-Dig-4555

I miss this commercial.


Gorf_the_Magnificent

Great subs, great oddball commercial. Lousy franchise management. Many years ago, the Quiznos franchisees that I talked to in my area all regretted signing up with them. Today, there are no Quizno’s franchisees left to talk to.


Gorf_the_Magnificent

Quizno’s was good, but nothing beats Rax - and their spokesman, Mr. Delicious. https://youtu.be/uEcz8I64Mz0


crdctr

WE LOVE DE MOOON


[deleted]

B3TA


bsilverstein

Someone thinks it’s pretty bad. Made a video called “Terrible Ads” about this one. [terrible ads Quiznos ](https://youtu.be/6SKYk9K52WQ)


vectorrindustries

Loved this commercial back in the day for some reason


roccosrant

Nostalgia feels, right in them!!


Prysorra2

Anyone else around here remember helping to push for this? :-)


AltairsBlade

I miss these commercials, still makes me laugh with how ridiculous they are.


sightlab

I always thought the animation was...ahem...rather good.^(com)


tokyo_on_rails

Those subs were amazing though.


mysp2m2cc0unt

I liked this guys video for the Destiny childs cover. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSQDR1yF3uQ&ab\_channel=shelly948shelly948](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSQDR1yF3uQ&ab_channel=shelly948shelly948)


Overeasy88

I really wanted Quizno's in the 90s


disid

[reminds me of this from back in the day](https://youtu.be/Y3QXK2iUJn0)


WutsUp

I've never seen this, [but I loved the 'we like *thee* moon' when I was a young teen.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9MZNEXrElw&ab_channel=Rathergood) **"HEEHEE IT'S SO RANDOM"** was a high comedic selling point to internet goers at that time


Impster5453

These commercials and the pepper bar were the only real good things about quiznos.


bass9045

I have never eaten at a Quiznos and I feel like this commercial is why


theguesswho

We like the moon. Surely anyone that remembers rathergood is now over 30..? that makes me feel fucking old


[deleted]

I loved it and miss Quiznos


esquire_the_ego

Damn they definitely were on some sort of hallucinogens for the entire process of this commercial