The New York Post took a ruler and discovered something interesting: the Subway Footlong is only 11 inches long. The Post became curious because in January 2013, a Subway customer from Perth, Australia, took a photo of his Subway Footlong Turkey next to a tape measure, and the Footlong came up one inch short. The Post discovered that Subway is not alone. The investigation uncovered other sub shops with similar length issues. Four of every seven sandwiches came up short on length, measuring 11 to 11.5 inches.

Subway's initial response was that "Footlong" is just the name for the sandwich and is not intended to represent the length of the sandwich. Following the posting of 100,000 likes on the customer's Facebook photo, Subway Australia posted on its Facebook page that FOOTLONG was a registered trademark of Subway and not intended to be a description. Subway Australia indicated that sandwiches do vary in length because of the construction process.

The basis for the suits is deceptive advertising. The damage claim is \(\$ 5\) million. Subway also notes that its Footlongs may vary in length because dough rises differently; baking in pans changes the shapes of some of the rolls; and shaping does produce variation in shapes and resulting variations in lengths, and that there was no intent to deliver less than a foot of sandwich..........................

 Discussion Questions 

1. The Menu Labeling Act, a federal law passed in 2010, requires restaurant chains (with 20 or more outlets) to disclose calorie and nutrition information for the food sold in the stores. There are also state laws, known as Truth in Menu laws, that require accurate descriptions-the label cannot say "Made in Vermont," if the syrup was not made in Vermont.
And jelly jars cannot say, "Made with real fruit" if there is no real fruit in the jelly. Did Subway violate any of these laws with its less-than-a-foot long Footlong?
2. Evaluate Subway's response to the public attention. Should it have done more?
3. Evaluate the actions of those who have filed suit.