The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, opened on November 22, 2013 as a sequel to the Hunger Games. What started as a series of books by Suzanne Collins has been turned into a hit soon-to-be trilogy. Catching Fire made an estimated $158,074,286.00 on its opening night in the United States alone, according to IMDB. The blockbuster film partnered with many companies, including Subway and Feeding America. This trio has combined forces to also include Twitter in an effort to end hunger.
As a result of Subway and Catching Fire being partners, Subway is currently using the tributes of the Games to encourage people to eat in the restaurant. This type of celebrity endorsement brings in people who might not normally eat there. “Oh, if Peeta eats Subway, I should too!” Granted, this behavior might come more from children but they, in turn, will ask their parents to take them to Subway. I’ve seen this time and time again with my younger siblings. This also works for the older crowd, however, because a partnership of this nature often includes promotional items or sales/deals that someone may anticipate being offered. Subway has transformed their marketing strategies and dining areas, with concepts like “Where Victors Eat” and “Win your own Victory Tour,” with the latter being a sweepstakes in conjunction with their collectible Catching Fire drink cups.
In the third and final facet of this trio of partners, Feeding America has jumped in and put their cause directly in the middle. Subway has placed cardboard cutouts of tributes Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick in the dining areas of Subways. A patron, after eating “What Victors Eat,” can take a photo with the cutouts and post it to the Subway Twitter, with the hashtag of #SUBtractHunger. Each time a hashtag is used, it is counted towards the 1,000,000 meals that Subway will buy for Feeding America. In the fine print, it says that Subway will donate up to $125,000, as each dollar makes about nine meals. However, this linkage will only exist until 11:59pm on December 15, 2013. The meals will be provided from Feeding America through local food banks in areas in need.
This celebrity endorsement effectively ties in cause marketing in order to create an environment in which Subway patrons are encouraged to aid Feeding America. Though there is no mention of patrons being able to donate money directly to Feeding America via Subway and Catching Fire, the Feeding America website has a donation area, as well as a hyperlink to a Hunger Games site, where a large “Ignite the Fight Against Hunger” plea is proudly displayed under a Mockingjay and above a photo of the tributes stoically ready to win the real-world Hunger Games. The number of families that go hungry over the holidays is continuously growing. With Feeding America, Subway, and the Hunger Games movie series teaming up to feed families, alongside many other organizations attempting to end hunger, do you think the odds are in are their favor?
-Hilary Hall
IMC Hawks Blog 
I think it is a smart move for these companies to team up. This allows Catching Fire to gain even MORE publicity, Subway to gain more customers, and Feeding America to help aid people in need.
The advertisement above with a picture of Katniss on it really grabs people’s attention. She looks powerful and she stands out; this is likely to capture the audience’s attention. This is a great instrument in raising people’s awareness of what the team is trying to accomplish.
I think that this is a good idea for all brands. While Hunger Games and Subway are both well known, Feeding America is not. However, teaming up with them will give them publicity and allow people to recognize them more. In return, Hunger Games and Subway will be looked at as brands that want to help feed homeless and give back to the community. I know that I would want to eat at a place with a background like that. Hopefully it will encourage people to donate to Feeding America.
I think this is a great way to help raise awareness and money for the hungry in our own country. The Hunger Game series are so popular many Americans will see this ad and want to help. This is the season for giving and I think it was a perfect way to advertise awareness to this great cause.
The grouping of Hunger Games, Subway, and Feeding America is clever in that they all deal with “hunger.” I think this is an excellent way to spread the word about “Feeding America.” Consumers would still go to Subway in order to get the special Hunger Games cups and other deals, but with a charity involved, more people are bound to participate. When someone goes to Subway not only are they getting to eat Subway, they get a Catching Fire product and on top of that, are contributing to hungry families throughout America.
I think this is a great idea and helps everyone involved, but most importantly Feeding America! I have never seen the Hunger Games but from what I can tell it obviously has a huge following and has the potential to do wonders for this cause.
This is a great way to gain awareness for Feeding America. It is a great cause and why not use a huge blockbuster to help gain some contributors? I think they have a done a good job and used the fame of the movie and the actors to good use. It is nice to see them do something like this for people especially during the holiday time. I think it would be very encouraging to see more celebrities use their fame for good like this. I know a lot of them use their money and do help charities and such but to take advantage of the hype of the movie and put it to a good use is awesome to witness!
I think it is a great idea that all companies are creating a partnership in order to help “end” world hunger. It is going to take a lot more than just Subway and feeding America to end world hunger, however it is a step in the right direction. I do not really see any negative outcomes from the companies teaming up. It encourages more people to eat at Subway with the endorsement of “Catching Fire” along with donating meals to those less fortunate. I think works out favorably for all companies.
Wow, great article, you grabbed my attention first off by choosing an article that dealt with the Hunger Games which is a big topic of today’s culture. I also think that it is interesting that you linked a brand and a movie and talked about the advertisement of both of these things and the connection of a non-profit organization. Overall I thought that your article highlighted some interesting points and pointed out that all of the companies came out with the “odds ever in their favor.”
I actually saw the Hunger Games poster in a subway the other day and there was a little girl that was so into the poster that she didn’t even care when her mom asked her what she wanted to eat! I think it is an awesome idea for both Subway and Hunger Games because they are both benefiting from the partnership. Hunger Games is encouraging more people to eat at Subway, along with donating meals? I think that more business partnerships like this should be considered. Very effective, and beneficial for everyone!
I think that this is a great campaign idea. It’s sad to say that I’d recognize the brand of the Hunger Games or Subway before I would Feeding America. That said, I think it’s a great idea to incorporate this brand with those of higher-status. That way, a wonderful cause like Feeding America can achieve a significant amount of attention to help their efforts. I think that all organizations are benefitting from the banding of these teams.
I think that it was a smart move on all the companies parts to team up. This way Catching Fire is receiving more publicity, subway is gaining more consumers, and Feeding America is helping to feed families. Even though it might not help out a significant amount in the end, this partnership will at least benefit each company somewhat. I think the odds are definitely in their favor.
I think that this is one of those instances where pretty much everybody wins. Obviously businesses don’t tend to enter partnerships is they won’t come out with something, but everything about this deal seems very fair. The movie gets press from both sources, and it gets linked to a charity, that’s pretty perfect. Subway get lots of business from both endorsements, and also gets to show off being linked with a charity. Feed America gets press from both sources, and gets money out of the deal to help their cause, pretty great. It seems like this was a perfect match.
Companies have become so strategic over the past decade. If I prefer to see any fast food chain greatly benefit from the latest blockbuster movie, it’s Subway. Though they are still categorized as “fast food,” Subway does have healthy, fresh options that aren’t seen in many Americanized fast food chains today like Burger King, Wendy’s, etc. You can get a fresh salad without the worry of it being loaded with 2,000 calories. In my opinion, Subway is genius for advertising movie cutouts, posters, and items with Katniss’s picture on it in order to promote their business while simultaneously making people aware of the Feeding America Association. This makes me an even bigger fan of the franchise!
I think that this a fantastic idea! While I am personally not much of Hunger Games fan, the promotional benefits for each company by teaming up is tremendous. It’s taking entertainment and using it to solve real world problems. Even though I’m sure Subway is in it for the profit and gain of sales, this does give them some reputation to fall back on later if they need to. The cutouts are genius because it associates the three companies into one and are cost effective, as it is just cardboard.
I think this is such a great idea by all of these companies. Helping the poor is an amazing thing and putting food on the table for those struggling is the best, especially during the holidays when we all have so much. My respect for Subway and The Hunger Games has grown a ton, and I’m really going to try to go eat there in the next few weeks to help support! People love the Hunger Games, and people love Subway but combining the two helps people love them both even more, and while helping our brothers and sisters who don’t have as much out, what could get any better?
I think that this partnership is brilliant. The idea of “hunger” is woven throughout this campaign, making it very cohesive. I think it was extremely smart for Subway to get on board with the Hunger Games, because the movie has gained a lot of attention and fans, and this great for attracting business to Subway. I also think that it was fantastic for Feeding America to get involved, and the hashtag #SUBtractHunger is really witty!
I think this demonstrates the lighter side of advertising. Some might see it as a way for a company to make an extra buck, (even though that’s what they’re supposed to do) but partnerships such as these provide plenty of opportunities for multiple companies use each other to gain an edge over the competition.
I think it is very smart for companies to use this platform to gain new customers. Hunger Games is such a well known movie and trilogy that it could help to promote anything! Feeding America will get a lot more publicity from this and it could really help businesses over competition!