Subway locations: Ethical comparisons with the McDonalds
All subway locations adhere strictly to ethical values in their formation and establishments. This makes them very popular and recent survey has shown that subway brand-name has beaten McDonald’s restaurant network. The secret behind this is their choice of new market locations in their expansion campaigns. In addition, subway locations are founded on the principle of ‘alternative healthy foods’ and this has greatly influenced their growth. In this, it has beaten McDonald’s who are constantly faced with ethical issues regarding their dealing in unhealthy products.
After Americans started taking their healthy seriously, subway locations begun that portrayed their public image as fast food chains for weight -checkers. This selling strategy resulted in “The Subway Diet” promotion. In this promotion campaign, a customer called Jared Fogle is alleged to have shed 245 pounds in a period of one year after eating subway sandwiches. This drastic change was resulting from a daily intake of 6 inch turkey, a packet of chips and an inch size vegetable. Consequently, all subway locations begun to emphasize that their menu consisted of seven 6-inch sandwiches and a fat composition of less than six grams. The low fat content was attributed to subway’s making of foods that was free from any sauces or cheese.
Nevertheless this assertion cannot be justified as several people have ordered foods with large portions of cheese from various subway locations. Moreover, in almost all of these subway locations, customers purchase sandwiches rich in fat content. In spite of this hidden truth, majority of the customers think they are eating healthy foods that they couldn’t get from McDonald’s. Their failure to critically examine what many subway locations offer, in terms of their fat and calorie composition, has made them become enslaved to the subway’s marketing strategy. It is very shocking that some of Subway’s six-inch sandwiches consist of more than 500 calories with a fat content that exceeds 20 grams.
The aim of this critique is not to suggest that Subway locations have improperly and unethically emphasized their low fat diets but to compare what they offer with McDonald’s. However it is still possible to sustain the critique because subway outlets openly shows in their advertisements that their sandwiches don’t have cheese or condiments.
How to search for Subway locations
One notable thing is that Subway’s marketing strategy has made it escape any ethical scrutiny. As a result, this has affected McDonald’s and other quick- food restaurants. The reason why McDonald’s are losing their popularity to subway locations is because of their marketing strategies. Some of the products they sell to children via their ‘Happy Meal adverts and promos’ come from industry farms. They also source some of their ingredients from the same factory farms. This has made them receive some negative interest from their customers and consequently a thorough criticism from human rights activists and consumer watchdogs.
In future it will be good to see if subway locations get same kind of scrutiny in their products as they increasingly expand and maintain their position as the healthiest fast- food restaurant chain.