[UPDATE] Subway Has An Unfortunate "Jared's Pants Game" On Its Kids Website

By Lisa White in News on Jul 7, 2015 6:30PM

[UPDATE BELOW] In the digital age, breaking news stories and complicated investigations can turn into a real PR nightmare for corporations. Tweet the wrong thing, forget to un-schedule a not-so-timely post and you'll soon find people with pitchforks at your door. So it's especially cringeworthy when you see a company floundering in handling an unfortunate situation, which Subway is currently doing after news broke this morning that the home of Subway spokeman, Jared Fogle, was raided by the FBI as part of a child pornography investigation.

The raid likely has to do with Russell Taylor, the former director of the charitable foundation named after Fogle, who was removed from his position after FBI investigators said they found more than 500 videos with images of child pornography in Taylor's home. In response to the investigation, Subway released the following statement:

"We are shocked about the news and believe it is related to a prior investigation of a former Jared Foundation employee. We are very concerned and will be monitoring the situation closely. We don't have any more details at this point."

Well, someone at Subway might want to monitor the situation more closely and take down a game currently on their kids site, Subway Kids, titled "Jared's Pants Dance." Here's a thought— when your company has a spokesperson suddenly linked to a child pornography investigation, you might not want to associate your business and their pants with children. At all. Investigation aside, this is just creepy—why would anyone want to "Move Jared’s pants"?

Jared's Pants Dance by Gothamist

Anyway, Fogle has been cooperating with investigators. According to the Indy Star:

One item police recovered from Taylor's home office, according to court records, did appear to have a link to Fogle or his foundation. The officers who searched Taylor's home reported recovering a thumb drive that contained multiple videos of child pornography, including what police described as "commercially made child pornography from Eastern Europe similar to that seized on other investigations." The detective leading the probe noted an examination of that thumb drive "revealed a document file with Taylor's employer listed in the file name."

It is unclear, however, if that referred to Fogle or the foundation. It also is not clear from the court document if that specific file contained pornographic images. And federal officials wouldn't comment on either case today.

Fogle's attorney said, "He has not been detained, arrested or charged with any crime or offense."

Update 4:30 p.m.: The game has been taken down after Subway and Fogle mutually agreed to suspend their relationship at this time.