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Bizarre ad icons become heroes to sandwich chain

The pop culture question of the moment is: What the heck is Quiznos thinking?

The stars of the Denver-based sandwich chain’s new ad campaign have bulging eyes and human teeth, they’re covered with fur and they look like nothing so much as deformed gerbils.

Yet they’re a big hit.

“It has produced by far the largest consumer response we’ve received to any ad campaign we’ve launched before,” says Stacie Lange, vice president of public relations for Quiznos. “We wanted to break through the clutter of advertising and get noticed, and we’ve done that.”

Charlotte Observer
Nobody knows what “spong monkeys” are supposed to be, but for Quiznos sandwich shops, they’re a pop-culture hit.

Quiznos has logged more than 14,000 e-mails, letters and telephone calls about them.

“Some people love them, and others just want to know what they are,” Ms. Lange says. “People ask: ‘Are they hamsters? Are they potatoes?’ ”

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No one really knows, says Kerry Feuerman, vice chairman and group creative director for the Martin Agency, Quiznos’ advertising firm. “It’s part of their mystique,” he says.

Their creator – a 27-year-old British animator named Joel Veitch – calls them “spong monkeys.” Again, no one knows why, and Mr. Veitch couldn’t be reached to explain.

https://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022504dnickspongmonkeys.19e81.html

Setting The Menu

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https://retailtrafficmag.com/ar/retail_setting_menu/index.htm
Restaurants and retail complement one another like a fine red wine and a juicy steak. Just ask any mall owner who has watched droves of stuffed customers migrating from Cheesecake Factory throughout the rest of the center after a meal. Moderately priced, full-service restaurants (which comprise 20 percent of the casual dining market) are in-demand anchors now that department store sales are slumping.

Patients' Rx: fast food?

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Giving the term ‘hospital food’ a whole new meaning

Craving a juicy hamburger? Can’t live another second without a cup of gourmet coffee?

Don’t let a minor inconvenience like being in the hospital get in your way.

More and more Dallas-Fort Worth hospitals are resembling shopping-mall food courts, with retail kiosks and counters offering everything from Subway sandwiches and McDonald’s fries to Starbucks coffee.

The trend “has a lot to do with customer satisfaction and our enduring love of comfort food,” said Johnny Sue Reynolds, a professor at the University of North Texas School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management. “When in times of stress, it feels good to go get a McDonald’s hamburger or something else familar.”

For the hospitals, restaurants and food kiosks can help ease budget pressures while pleasing patients, visitors and employees alike.

At the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas kiosk, which sells Starbucks coffee, java sales have been so strong that operator Blue Mesa Coffee Co., a division of Dallas-based Mesa SW Restaurants, has proposals out to operate similar kiosks at four other North Texas hospitals.

“We are trying to be on the forefront of the trend, and are targeting every major hospital that doesn’t have existing contracts for their food services with a third-party provider,” said Jim Baron, a co-owner with his wife Liz Baron of Mesa SW.

“There’s typically a fairly lengthy approval process,” Baron added. “These deals tend to take a long time to pull off.”

Since opening the Presbyterian kiosk in October 2002, Blue Mesa has gained space in the front lobby of the hospital’s main building at a reduced rent, with utilities provided. Jim Baron said it’s a good marketing opportunity that grosses about $200,000 a year.

The kiosk, which also serves light breakfasts and lunches, is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. five days a week and is staffed by three of Mesa’s nearly 400 employees.

Jeff Light, administrative director of guest and support services at Presbyterian, said the fact that Blue Mesa supplies everything, including trained employees, ma [Read more…] about Patients' Rx: fast food?

Critical Conditions (washingtonpost.com)

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Critical Conditions
A professional restaurant-goer’s tips for getting the most out of the experience

By Tom Sietsema
The place: a restaurant somewhere in Washington. The maitre d’ welcomed me and my friends as if we were longtime customers, and the room — all smooth wood, soft banquettes and flattering light — was precisely where we wanted to find ourselves on a winter evening when the thermometer had plunged to near-Arctic numbers. Even before our water glasses were filled, the restaurant was making a fine first impression. read the full article [Read more…] about Critical Conditions (washingtonpost.com)

Pizza pro sees future in take-and-bake line

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Consumers could see new types of pizzas this year as the industry tries to boost sales in the face of the low-carbohydrate diet craze, a top industry consultant says.

Dave Ostrander, an Oscoda-based pizza consultant known in the business as the “Pizza Doctor,” said many pizzerias in Michigan are likely to introduce low-carb pizzas in the next six months. He also expects to see more take-and-bake products that allow customers to take pizzas home and bake them at their convenience.
https://www.freep.com/money/business/doc1_20040301.htm

The lush life, plus a restaurant

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In the newest wave of gilded urban life, an independent restaurant on the premises of luxury condominiums is de rigueur, as essential to the perks as a doorman or a covered parking garage. The right kind of restaurant, says Ronald M. Druker, developer of the South End’s Atelier 505, will “add a certain level of vitality” to the premises and “set a tone for the lifestyle of the building.” That lifestyle is costing condominium owners between $600,000 and $2.75 million. [Read more…] about The lush life, plus a restaurant