The chance you take

It's like the arrow in the Fed Ex logo. Once you see it, you can never not see it.

For years, Jared just looked like a nerdy guy who lost a ton of weight and struck it big by eating Subway sandwiches.

But now, instead of nerdy he looks evil. And at Subway he's referred to as "Jared who?"

That they'll get in trouble, wind up in the middle of a scandal or die mid-campaign has always been the chance you take when you use a celebrity as a spokesperson. Or create one.

What Jared did was particularly despicable. And the fallout was quick and predictable: Subway severed all ties with him minutes after the first story broke and he hadn't yet been formally accused of anything. Then they hired a new ad agency to give them a fresh campaign and a new start. To which I say, "How's that working out for you?"

Ad agencies are never more optimistic than when they get a new piece of business. And Subway is a big account. I wish them luck, but this particular kind of tarnish keeps coming up like onions on a Black Forest Ham sub. Jared will be associated with Subway for campaigns and years to come, regardless of what they do. Not fair, but true.

Some celebrities, like Tiger Woods, manage to recover from scandal. But because of the repulsiveness of their transgressions, the Jareds and Bill Cosbys of the endorsement world aren't ever coming back.

Using a spokesperson is always a crapshoot. It's borrowed interest, but unlike a lot of people in the business I'm not necessarily against it as long as the person is right for the product and the message.

The problem that you run into is often all the A-list celebrities you want are taken. Then you wind up with a spot like this:

At least the only thing Loggia was ever guilty of was being in a bad commercial.

It makes the job harder, but it's better to hang a campaign on an idea than a celebrity. It's the only surefire way to avoid this kind of bad publicity and the lasting fallout that follows it.

If Jared was smart, he kept the giant jeans he used to hold up in the early commercials.

When this is all over, they're all he's going to have left.