Certainly the most unique opportunity I’ve ever gotten at a film festival is this one. I was contacted by a publicist for Subway, which is giving away samples of their new menu item, the Flatizza (flatbread pizza), to guests at the South by Southwest film, interactive and music festival. Jared Fogle, the spokesman who famously lost 245 pounds eating only Subway for a year, was in Austin.
I may be primarily a film and television reporter but I know a story when I see one. I interviewed Jared about the new menu item at Subway and reflected on his now storied career with the fast food chain and entry into pop culture history.
CraveOnline: Subway has changed their menu a lot over the years. Has that made it difficult to stay on the Subway diet?
Jared Fogle: Not really. I still eat Subway two or three times a week when I’m on the road. I travel almost 200 days a year and for the most part I still stick to the traditional low fat sandwiches, but like everything else in life you’ve got to splurge occasionally. The Flatizza is one of my new favorites and it’s also how you get it dressed. I don’t put the pepperoni on it so much as I load it up with all the vegetables, like the green peppers, the Jalepenos, banana peppers and that kind of thing. Every now and then I’ll still splurge with a Flatizza. It’s something nice, it’s something different, something new and people seem to like it a lot.
Are you in with Subway enough now that they come to you for menu suggestions?
Not really but they let me try everything early which is cool. When I’m at headquarters or if I’m at the Subway convention or whatever it might be, it’s neat because I usually get to try it before anybody else does. They always want my opinion on it. I don’t know what they do with it but they want my opinion on it and it’s fun. It’s been 16 years now that I’ve been with Subway.
Sixteen? Has it really been that long?
It was 1998 was when I started at Subway. It’s been a surreal journey and it’s been a great brand to be with. If you would have told me 16 years ago that I’d be doing this, I would’ve said you’re crazy, but God bless America. It’s been an awesome ride. It’s one of those things I know it’s not going to be here forever so I’m just trying to enjoy it for what it is. Coming to South by Southwest, this is my first time here, never had a chance to be here before, had heard such great things about it. The energy and the vibe of this area is so awesome. It’s this kind of experience that I’ve gotten to have because of my relationship with Subway and it’s just been fun. It’s nice to bring smiles to people’s faces too. That’s part of the fun.
Subway has it pretty well down to a science as a franchise, but what are the best Subway locations you’ve been to?
There’s some cool ones I’ve gone to visit. I’ve gotten to visit one in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba which is pretty neat. I’ve gotten to do a lot of work with the military over the years. Obviously, everything that they do for us and the sacrifices they make, I’ve gotten to go around the world to Subways on bases all over the world. I’ve gotten to be in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I’ve gotten to go to Germany and England and Italy and some of our bases over there. Those are probably some of the more unique locations.
I think one of the coolest ones is while they were building the Freedom Tower on the grounds of 9/11, as they were building the tower they had a moving Subway that went up with it so the construction workers could eat Subway while they were working and not have to go all the way back down so that was pretty cool. There are some unique ones.
It was a 6 inch turkey sub for lunch usually and then a foot long veggie sub for dinner. The big key was no mayonnaise, no oil, no cheese. And then a bag of the baked chips and a Diet Coke with each one. Did that twice a day, started walking a half hour a day. I always tell people it’s a combination of both. You’ve got to do both. It’s changing your diet but it’s also exercising, being away from the TV screens and the video games a little bit. In one year I lost 245 pounds.
That still sounds like under 1000 calories a day. Isn’t that quite little?
Actually with the foot long veggie, with the Baked Lays… It was a 6 inch turkey for the day, plus a foot long veggie a day plus the two bags of baked chips, it was close to 1500 calories a day. 1400, 1500. It was low calorie but I needed that. I was 425 pounds. I needed to make some drastic changes in my life. I was on the verge of cardiovascular disease and diabetes I’m sure was right around the corner so I’m just glad I made those positive changes that I did. My body reacted well to it. I was checked up by a doctor every month or so making sure that everything internally was functioning like it should. Even though it was an unconventional way to lose weight, the doctor said, “As long as you’re okay with it, we’re okay with it.” Here we are.
You just came up with the Subway idea on your own?
I lived next door to a Subway. When I went to Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, my junior year I literally moved out of the dorms which was great, away from all buffet meals and literally into a tiny little apartment that just so happened to share a wall with a Subway restaurant. So I was literally 10 steps from my front door to the front door of a Subway. I just got an idea, I wanted to try and eat twice a day off the low fat menu as a way to hopefully lose weight. I’d never lost weight. Of course I didn’t know what that was going to be like. It made sense to me that, if I could stick to it, would work. It was just the right fit, tasted good and I gave it a shot. Sure enough, it came off.
How did Subway find out about you?
A buddy of mine in college wrote an article about me in the Indiana University newspaper. Back then it was the hard copy, everybody picked up a hard copy and it was a free paper. It was called the Indiana Daily Student, pretty well respected college newspaper. That article he wrote about me on the front page back in 1998 got picked up by some other newspapers and magazines around the country and ultimately the folks at Subway corporate heard about what I did, called me literally and said, “Hey, we’ve heard about this. Are you interesting in doing a test commercial about what you did?” We did and it just went crazy. Then shows like Oprah and Larry King, all those kind of shows started calling and the rest is history.
Do you still have the old pants?
I do, I do actually. I would say they stay in a secure undisclosed location, under lock and key. When I go to schools, one of the things I do is I go to schools a lot and talk to kids. I have a foundation called The Jared Foundation to fight childhood obesity. On top of that, a lot of my local business around the country involves going to schools, speaking to an entire assembly of kids. The great thing is the kids know who I am. More importantly, we try to have a good message for them about the mistakes that I made when I was their age, why I went down that path and why I ultimately weighed 400 plus pounds. Hopefully they can learn from my mistakes and not wind up weighting what I weighed.
How has being the face of Subway in ads and television changed the way you look at yourself?
I guess a lot. It’s my job. One of the great things about what I do is I get to be myself. I’m not an actor. I’m not somebody who’s trying to sell something. I just share my story about how I lost 245 pounds eating subway for a year. That story has continued to still inspire other people and that’s for me one of the neatest things I’ve gotten to do. What’s kept this going I think is that people say, “If that Jared guy can do it, I can do it too.” People relate to it. I still live in Indianapolis, IN. I’m still a Midwest guy. I haven’t gone all Hollywood or anything like that. I’ve tried to stay who I am all 16 years. Subway has let me do that and they wanted me to do that. I think that’s what seems to work.
Subway is your full time job now?
This is my full time job. I’ve been doing this for almost 16 years. I travel almost 200 days a year all over the world doing things like this, doing big sporting events, anything that Subway has a presence at. On top of that, I do a lot of the local market business. This week I was in Missouri and Kansas, places like Topeka, KS, Joplin, MO, some small market stuff too. It’s a variety of things like that and it keeps me busy, keeps me hopping but I love it. My joke is it beats working for a living. It’s a lot of fun and it’s good to see those reactions, especially kids. We do a whole school assembly and the kids really relate to it. They leave there and you hear positive feedback months later from teachers and principals saying, “Wow, the kids are still talking about your visit.” It’s pretty cool.
Did you get to appear on “Community” as part of the Subway SUBplot?
Yes, I did. I was there with Joel McHale and Ken Jeong. They were just awesome. They were so nice to me, so good to me. My scene involved me being in a hallway and Joel sort of bumps into me, looks at me and shakes his head. It was a quick little guest. It was fun. It was a trip to do it.
When “South Park” did an episode on you, did you feel like you’d made it?
That was awesome. “Jared Has Aides,” I was flattered beyond belief and couldn’t believe it. I found out about it bit by bit until it actually made the air and I was laughing hysterically. It was awesome. For those guys to do a whole episode about me, that’s pretty cool.
Would you have done your voice if they’d asked?
If they asked, I would have loved to have done my voice. I was a little bummed out. I would have totally done it. That would’ve been fun. I think that’s the ultimate pop culture reference now. Maybe it used to be “Saturday Night Live.” Now it’s “South Park.” I remember watching it and just being like, “This is so surreal. I can’t believe they have an episode of ‘South Park’ about me.”
