Oh Canada! Subway goes metric

Published 1:30 am Thursday, October 30, 2025

TV advertising can be annoying, disruptive, and just plain old boring.

Of course, it’s not an easy task to be both informative and catch people’s attention in 30 seconds or less.

For me, the most successful ads are the ones that forego trying to impart too much information (I can look stuff up if I need to) and are just entertaining.

My favourite recent one is the new campaign from Subway Canada.

The perfect, deep advertising baritone voiceover of the 16-second spot intones:

“At Subway Canada, we’re ditching the inch with five 6-inch subs now available in centimetres.”

Okay, it’s a feature that really isn’t a feature, but they acknowledge that in the next line.

“The difference? Absolutely nothing, yet measurably more Canadian. Five classic 15.24-centimetre subs for just $5.99.”

Even the disclaimer at the end cleverly plays on the theme with a subtle shift of the standard “while quantities last” disclaimer, saying, “Available while centimetres last.”

It’s all-around brilliant. Funny. Plays to our Canadian identity. And it’s short. It sticks in the mind.

It put me in mind of one of my other all-time favourites.

Remember when Shreddies introduced *New* Diamond Shreddies. Genius.

Seriously, Google that one (Diamond Shreddies Factory Floor Ad) if you don’t remember it. It starts with a bored inspector on the assembly line watching all the square Shreddies go by until the unthinkable happens, and he has to stop the conveyor belt.

I still laugh whenever I see it.

One in a similar vein, that absolutely doesn’t work for me is the Coors Light “Cold” campaign. Selling cold as a feature of a product that tastes like — well, you know what — either warm or cold doesn’t do it for me despite a very similar, baritone voiceover.

I’m not convinced advertising works on me at all. I’m far too critical (some might even say cynical).

But who knows, maybe the next time I have a hankering for a quick, cheap lunch, I might just think, “hmmm, I’d really like one of those six-dollar, 15.24-centimetre subs.”