Kansas City Blog

If you've followed the NFL playoffs this year, you've seen the Domino's ads comparing its oven toasted sandwiches to Subway's and the fact that people prefer Domino's sandwiches two to one over Subway.

Instead of just stating this fact, Domino's tries to cleverly show it and ends up making almost no sense. Here's the ad:



At 10 seconds, the world's smartest man, Rick Rossner, comes on the screen and says, "Let's say my IQ represents the number of people who prefer Domino's but that an average-fifth grader's IQ represents the number of people who prefer Subway." At this point the fifth-grader pushes the go stones off the table.

The ad is pointless once you realize that the fifth-grader's age has nothing to do with IQ. Without getting too technical about the methodology of IQ tests, people's IQs are not supposed to widely change over time. The tests factor in your age. If that fifth grader has an IQ of 100, he should have the same IQ when he's 30 or 60 years old. For Rossner to say he's twice as smart as the average fifth grader is like me saying I'm twice as dumb as a really smart toddler. Yeah, it's technically true but it makes no sense.

It's not just my nerves these ads are getting on. Companies that are being attacked in taste-test ads really don't like them, and they're filing a third more cases with the National Advertising Division. If Subway doesn't take Domino's to this advertising court, then common sense should. -- By Owen Morris