The Quiznos mascot commercial is an advertisement campaign featuring a unique and attention-grabbing character. The mascot, known as the "Quiznos sub," is a personified sandwich with exaggerated features and a distinctive voice. The main idea of the commercial is to promote Quiznos as a fast-food option and highlight the quality and flavor of their sandwiches. The mascot interacts with customers, showcasing the variety of menu options available, and emphasizing the freshness of the ingredients. The commercial is designed to be humorous and memorable, using the mascot's quirky personality to engage viewers. The commercial's main goal is to increase brand awareness and entice customers to visit Quiznos for their sandwich cravings.

Fast Food’s Most Unhinged Mascots Are Back

In 2003 the Spongmonkeys, a pair of potato-shaped, human-toothed, rodent(ish) critters became the unlikely faces of Quiznos. Now, the sandwich chain is plotting a comeback, and the Spongmonkeys are once again loving their subs.

The commercial's main goal is to increase brand awareness and entice customers to visit Quiznos for their sandwich cravings. Overall, the Quiznos mascot commercial successfully uses its unique character to promote the brand and stand out in the competitive fast-food industry..

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The Spongmonkeys doing whatever the hell it is that they do. Quiznos

Amy McCarthy is a reporter at Eater.com, focusing on pop culture, policy and labor, and only the weirdest online trends.

The year 2003 was a different time. George W. Bush was president, MySpace had just launched, and U.K. animator Joel Veitch created what would eventually become one of the weirdest — and most enduring — characters in all of advertising history, the Spongmonkeys. Originally a bizarre online video, the potato-shaped, human-toothed, rodent(ish) critters were adopted by Quiznos and turned into the stars of a series of commercials, sparking both outrage and eternal meme glory. Now, 20 years later, they’re back.

Four years before Tim and Eric debuted on Adult Swim — arguably the height of mainstream absurdist comedy — the Spongmonkeys were unavoidable. If you watched TV at all in 2003, you almost assuredly saw a Quiznos commercial featuring these unholiest of creatures wailing about how much they love the restaurant chain’s subs. “We love the subs, ‘cause they are good to us,” they sang hoarsely. Quiznos ditched the Spongmonkeys in 2004, likely because both their store franchisees and consumers alike hated those commercials. The Spongmonkeys could have been just a fleeting bit of internet ephemera, tossed in the nostalgia bucket atop contemporaries like “Shoes” and “Charlie the Unicorn,” but their distinct weirdness has kept them in the conversation, even as Quiznos filed for bankruptcy in 2014 and shuttered more than 4,000 stores.

In 2023, Quiznos is plotting a major comeback, and the Spongmonkeys are, improbably, part of it. The chain has a new look, a new model, and plans to open dozens of stores over the next year, along with a new Spongmonkeys ad from Veitch that debuts this week. We sat down with Veitch to talk about where the hell the Spongmonkeys came from in the first place, how they’ve endured in meme culture, and why Gen Z’s love of absurdist humor makes now the perfect time to bring back these furry little weirdos.

Eater: I think most people would agree the Spongmonkeys are the weirdest, most unexpected mascots in fast food history. Where the hell did they come from?

Joel Veitch: It’s quite a long time ago now. Twenty years, I think. I was hanging out with my brother, and we were talking about how good the moon is. We went back to my place and just started jamming with a guitar. He was playing guitar, I was singing, and improvising this song in a silly voice. I recorded it, because I tend to record things, and I had these characters that I had been mucking about with, the Spongmonkeys — it was perfect for them. I made the video and just shoved it on the internet, as you did in those days, not expecting anything in particular to happen. They went a bit bonkers, and not long after that I got a call from Quiznos asking if I would like to work with them. And the rest is history, I suppose.

What, exactly, is a Spongmonkey?

God knows. They’re an enigma wrapped within another big enigma. Who knows what they actually are? It’s a bunch of this and that tossed in there, bits of textures from rabbits, and some quite substantial dental defects from humans. They’re heavily influenced by strange-looking bears and tarsiers.

What sub would the Spongmonkeys order at Quiznos?

All of them. They’re just insatiable little beasts. I think you could keep throwing anything into those gaping mouths, and they would just never stop.

Do you ever hear the Spongmonkeys screaming “WE LOVE THE SUBS” in your dreams?

Not so much my dreams, but you know how you have an internal monologue? Quite often I’ll be thinking “Oh, I really loved that,” and in my head, the voice is a Spongmonkey.

Were you surprised when Quiznos came to you 20 years later to recreate these commercials?

I didn’t expect Quiznos to get back in touch, but I was so pleased they did. I was over the moon. My experience of the mayhem that was making these commercials originally was just unbridled joy. Really, really good fun. And I’ve enjoyed the way that they’ve continued to have a life afterward.

What’s the weirdest context you’ve seen the Spongmonkeys in online now that they’ve taken on a life of their own as a meme?

There were people making Spongmonkey Halloween costumes back in the day, and those photos ended up making their way back to me, which was great fun. I don’t know whether I should mention this, but there was a really, really bad taste “we love the subs” thing when that submarine imploded. It was just so awful, I thought there was no way I could amplify this. Oh god, I’ve just amplified it. That’s the worst, it was in terrible taste.

There’s been a lot written about Gen Z’s love of absurdist humor. How do you think they’ll feel about the Spongmonkeys? Is right now the most obvious moment for them to make a comeback?

All times are good times for the Spongmonkeys. I’m really intrigued to see what young people think. There are those of us who were around when it first came out, and it has a specific relevance for those people. Now you have this huge group of people who were much too young, or weren’t even born at that time, and I’m really intrigued to see what their reaction is. Obviously it won’t be as shocking to them, because the culture has moved on. But there’s still something fun about the Spongmonkeys.

What kind of future do you envision for the Spongmonkeys? Do you think they’ll stick around?

A presidential run. I’d love to keep doing stuff with them. They’ve got this boundless enthusiasm about them. That’s really key. They’re so positive, there’s no negativity at any point, and I just really liked that. I adore these little critters.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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Quiznos is bringing back Spongmonkeys, its creepy rat-like mascots from 20 years ago, as the restaurant looks for a comeback

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Quiznos has brought back the Spongmonkeys, its creepy mascots, which last graced its ads in 2005. Quiznos

• Quiznos is bringing back the Spongmonkeys, its pair of creepy corporate mascots.
• The mascots are the stars of a new digital ad campaign that the chain debuted Tuesday.
• Quiznos closed 95% of its restaurants leading up to a 2014 bankruptcy, but it's planning a comeback.

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Quiznos is bringing back some of the creepiest mascots in corporate history: The Spongmonkeys.

A new digital ad campaign will feature the two creatures, shaped like small rodents but with human-like buggy eyes and teeth. In an ad that the sandwich chain posted to Youtube, the Spongmonkeys announce their return, with one singing and the other strumming a guitar.

"We are baaack on a road trip to get to Quiznos," one of the Spongmonkeys sings.

The last time the mascots were the face of Quiznos, the brand occupied a much bigger place on the American restaurant scene. The Spongmonkeys last appeared in an ad for the chain in 2005, when Quiznos had about 4,000 locations, according to Restaurant Business Online.

But the chain started to crumble in the late 2000s after a private equity buyout and as the global financial crisis started, according to 1851 Franchise, a publication for franchisees. Locations began to shutter, and in 2014, Quiznos filed for bankruptcy.

Since its peak, it has closed 95% of its stores, leaving it with just over 150 locations. "Quiznos' decline is the biggest in restaurant industry history," Restaurant Business reported in its own coverage of the Spongmonkeys' return on Tuesday.

The Spongmonkeys' reappearance is part of a larger effort to return the toasted sandwich chain to glory. The company said in a statement Tuesday that it started franchising new locations last year after a decade-long hiatus. Franchised locations were key to Quiznos previous store network.

"It's harder to find a Quiznos these days, and we're here to fix that, because it's a new day, and we're bringing Quiznos back," a narrator says at the end of the new ad.

"We love the subs!" one of the Spongmonkeys screams shortly afterward.

Quiznos seems aware that it has lots of ground to gain back.

"The Spongmonkeys were last seen in 2005, when they were loved and hated in roughly equal measure," CEO Tim Casey said in the statement. "The return of the brand's most famous mascots, the Spongmonkeys, marks the resurgence of Quiznos."

The Song of the Quiznos Spongmonkey, the Weirdest Corporate Mascot of All Time

In 2004, 41-year-old Ty Harper was an experienced art director about to launch a major ad campaign based on an idea he had pitched to Quiznos. The sandwich chain said they wanted to get noticed, and he gave them exactly what they wanted: the Spongmonkey.

It was a simple concept. Harper had found a viral video featuring creatures called Spongmonkeys singing about their love of the moon. Why not have them singing about toasted subs instead? I mean, who could resist?

A lot of people, as it turned out. The backlash against the campaign was near instantaneous — and universal. “People were saying it was just a bunch of singing rats, and I was like, ‘Well, first of all, they’re not rats. If you look closely, they’re carefully constructed of seven different animals,’” Harper tells me.

His argument, however, was unconvincing. The Quiznos Spongmonkey frequently makes the cut on “ all-time worst mascots” lists and advertising experts consider it a love-or-hate property (at best). The only thing everyone seems to agree on: How the fuck did these commercials come to be in the first place?

The short answer: beer. Lots and lots of beer.

Spongmonkey creator and animator Joel Veitch, 46, of Rather Good , says he and his brother wrote the song that would one day become an advertising earworm during a beer-fueled night in the U.K. “I was in the pub with my brother, and we were talking about how great the moon was while we got a bit tipsy,” he tells me.

They were soon back at home, drinking even more beer, when they got out the guitar and Veitch improvised some lyrics paying homage to the moon. The next day, he looked back at the video recording of the impromptu songwriting session and was shocked to find that he didn’t hate it. In fact, he was inspired. He had been working with some characters he called Spongmonkeys (Veitch was active on a British website called b3ta where “spong” — adding large eyes with small pupils to images — was a popular practice), and he put together a little animated video where his creatures sang his moon anthem. “We shoved it up on the internet, and, um, that’s how it all started,” he explains.

The video quickly went viral, reaching over a million views, which was quite a feat in the pre-social media and YouTube era. One of the people who came across it was Harper, who went down a late-night rabbit hole that led him to the work of Rather Good. He bookmarked the “We Love the Moon” video and left it at that. “I had no clue why I was bookmarking it, but I had a feeling that it would come in handy someday,” he says. “I was just mesmerized.”

A few months later, Quiznos approached his agency, the Martin Agency, to pitch a massive national campaign that would make a big splash. Harper knew just the thing to get the company noticed: Spongmonkeys earnestly singing about their love for subs. He and his partner at the time quickly rewrote the lyrics, keeping true to the lack of cynicism in the original. According to Harper, now 57, the lyrics came out effortlessly. “We were sitting there crying laughing, thinking, ‘No one’s ever gonna buy this, but boy, it’s a great way to kill an afternoon,’” he laughs. “We showed them to the creative director, and he just kind of took off his glasses and rubbed his bridge of his nose.”

But he went for it, and to everyone’s surprise, so did Quiznos — after a strategic pitch, that is. The Martin Agency showed Quiznos a video of college kids reacting to the “We Like the Moon” video, leaving them wondering what exactly had their target audience in stitches. Next, they showed the Quiznos suits Veitch’s video. The idea being that they’d now find it hilarious and not odd, which is exactly what happened. The only problem? They had to get Veitch on board. Harper remembers the email he sent to Veitch well: “I was like, ‘You’re not gonna believe this…’ I told him I worked in advertising and gave him the long story short, before asking him if he’d be interested. Luckily he said, ‘Yeah, that sounds great.’”

Veitch, though, was bewildered. Given that he was in the U.K., he had no idea what Quiznos even was. Nonetheless, he and his brother were quickly flown out to animate the ads as well as sing the new songs, which he sang all night until his voice was raw. The first commercial dropped soon thereafter:

Months later, Veitch was back in the U.K., working as an animator on a late-night TV show, and not really thinking much about the ads when they first began airing in the U.S. His email blew up immediately. “Nobody around me had a clue what was happening, it was all in another country for a brand they’d never heard of,” he says. Still, the reaction resulted in his website crashing when over a quarter of a million people went to check out his work.

Unfortunately, the backlash was just as swift. Within the first week of the campaign, Quiznos corporate received more than 30,000 calls complaining about the Spongmonkeys. Per a 2004 article from the Denver Business Times , an Alabama Quiznos franchisee even put up signs in his windows saying he wasn’t responsible for the ads, as they were turning away customers and making children cry.

In fairness, Aundra Madden, a 27-year-old in Canada, says she’s still haunted by the ads. “ I was roughly 10 years old and in British Columbia visiting my dad when my young mind was molested by those absolute hell beasts,” she tells me. She first saw them after a long flight and was sure they were merely a jet-lag-induced hallucination. All these years later, it continues to be an inside joke between her and her dad: “He still jokes about taking me to Quiznos to see the road-kill monkeys EVERY chance he gets.”

Not that any of this bothered Veitch. “I just pictured them being seen in these Middle American living rooms — people who never had anything to do with internet culture,” he says. “We were just forcing that on everybody.”

Quiznos, of course, backtracked almost from the jump. “The client came to us and said, ‘Okay, you got us noticed, but we have to stop this,’” Harper says. “We basically won the account and lost the account on that work.” Still, he considers the campaign a success, and it remains the work that he’s most proud of today. “Here’s the deal,” he tells me. “In advertising, if you can influence culture in any way, you’ve done your job.”

As with most things from the early aughts, Spongmonkeys have become a nostalgia touchstone and even inspired some people to go into animation, which obviously delights Veitch and Harper. Veitch in particular says he’d happily participate in a Spongmonkey reboot. “Ev ery now and again, there’s a sniff from Quiznos about whether they’d like to do it again,” he says. “It would be fun!”

After all, as more time has gone by, it’s become crystal clear that they’re not the true monster of sandwich mascots. That’d be Jared .

Desi Jedeikin

Desi Jedeikin is a writer living in Los Angeles. She co-hosts the podcast Hollywood Crime Scene and has lots of things in development that will probably never happen. She wastes a lot of time on Twitter @desijed.

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Reviews for "From Subs to Superstardom: How the Quiznos Mascot Went Viral"

1. John Smith - 2 stars - I really dislike the Quiznos mascot commercial. The whole concept is just weird and creepy. Who thought it was a good idea to have these strange animated creatures singing and dancing? It's off-putting and makes me not want to eat at Quiznos. I prefer commercials that are straightforward and get to the point, not ones that try to be overly creative and end up being more confusing than anything else.

2. Jessica Thompson - 1 star - The Quiznos mascot commercial is absolutely terrible. I can't understand the purpose behind it and it does nothing to make me want to try their food. The characters are bizarre and unsettling, and the jingle they sing is annoying and gets stuck in my head for days. I'll be avoiding Quiznos at all costs as long as this commercial is on the air.

3. Mark Davis - 1 star - The Quiznos mascot commercial is a complete disaster. The animation is poorly done and the characters are incredibly creepy. It's not appetizing to see strange creatures dancing around and singing about sandwiches. The commercial is more likely to give me nightmares than make me hungry. I'll definitely be avoiding Quiznos thanks to this horrible ad campaign.

4. Samantha Miller - 2 stars - I can't stand the Quiznos mascot commercial. It's just too bizarre for my taste. The odd-looking creatures and their strange movements make me cringe every time I see the commercial. It's a shame because I used to enjoy Quiznos, but this commercial has completely turned me off from ever wanting to eat there again. I hope they come up with something better in the future.

5. Michael Johnson - 2 stars - As much as I try to like the Quiznos mascot commercial, I just can't. The characters are too weird and their voices are grating. They come off as trying too hard to be funny and quirky, but it just falls flat for me. The commercial doesn't make me hungry or interested in Quiznos' sandwiches at all. It's a miss for me, and I hope they go back to more traditional advertising methods.

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