• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, March 4, 2016

Subway is running two TV spots that humorously warn consumers off “greasy” fast food and encourage them to opt instead for the sandwich chain’s new permanent menu item: a rotisserie-style chicken sandwich.

The TV ads, from BBDO, use over-the-top vignettes to drive home the point that people wouldn’t think of mistreating their possessions in the ways that they sometimes mistreat their bodies by eating unhealthy fast food.

In one spot (above), a man gravely abuses his car, and in the other (below), a tablet.

The ads began airing on Feb. 28 during prime-time programming.

The campaign also includes digital and social media advertising. 360i is managing the social postings on Subway’s Facebook and Twitter channels.

The new sandwich (as well as chicken strips to be introduced on April 1) uses chickens raised without antibiotics; the sandwich is also free from artificial ingredients. 

The “free-from” message — and Subway’s claim that it’s now the largest global QSR to serve antibiotic-free chicken on such a scale (it’s available at all 27,000 of its U.S. locations) — are part of the brand’s new approach to its better-for-you-positioning.

While Subway pioneered healthier positioning among QSRs, it’s recently been co-opted by a growing number of competitors, including McDonald’s.

Subway is also stressing that it’s on track to remove all artificial colors, flavors and preservatives from menu items in its 30,000 North American locations by 2017, and that it will over the next few years also transition to turkey (and later on, pork and beef) raised without antibiotics. By 2025, the brand says that it will also have transitioned to serving only cage-free eggs in North America.