TheQuartering [8/10/2021]
This marketing team wants to get fired.
Megan Rapinoe kicked up another round of controversy at the Tokyo Olympics — and now a group of Subway franchisees are pressuring the fast-food giant to give her the boot.
The 36-year-old, purple-haired soccer star — who kneeled during the National Anthem to kick off the Tokyo Olympics before leading the United States to a bronze medal this week — began a stint as a pitchwoman for the fast-food giant this spring.
In one spot, Rapinoe — who has been a vocal proponent of equal rights and equal pay for women — knocks a burrito out of a guy’s hands by kicking a soccer ball at him.
The response has been mixed, according to franchisees. Late last month on a discussion forum hosted by the North American Association of Subway Franchisees, a Wisconsin store operator posted a picture of a hand-scrawled note from an irate customer taped to the front door of his shop.
“Boycott Subway until Subway fires the anti-American … Megan Rapinoe, the creep who kneels for our beloved National Anthem!” the note read.
“The ad should be pulled and done with,” the franchisee wrote of the Rapinoe spot. “It gets tiring apologizing.”