“Saved by Zero” and “Five Dollar Footlong” to Open Show at Jingle Grammy Awards
Los Angeles, CA – In a twin-billing of superpowers, the organizers of this year’s Jingle Grammy Awards announced that the “Saved by Zero” spot for Toyota and Subway’s “Five Dollar Footlong” would be opening the show together.
Sergei Jordan, the show’s organizer, hailed the pairing saying that when he first envisioned the two jingles opening the show together, he didn’t think there was any chance it would happen. “Jingles are egotistical creatures by nature, and the fact that we were able to get the two heaviest hitters in the business to agree to be in the same building, let alone the same stage in succession is absolutely amazing. It’s probably because they both want to make a last minute push in the ‘Viewers Choice Award’, which allows voting up until the nominees are read, but who cares? All I know is that they’re both here, and they’re going to make history on my show.”
Both jingles are up for numerous awards including “Infectious Jingle of the Year”, “Burned into Memory Jingle of the Year”, “Most Overplayed Jingle of the Year”, the “Viewers Choice Award”, as well as the night’s most prestigious award, the “I May Kill Myself Just to Get this Jingle Out of my Head Award”.
Five Dollar Footlong burst onto the scene in the Spring of 2008 in an effort by the restaurant chain Subway to re-popularize their footlong sandwiches. It quickly elevated to a level of fame rarely achieved by jingles. Admittedly, it was ill prepared for fame as it quickly descended into a party lifestyle of drugs and alcohol. It performed poor concert after poor concert and was finally forced into rehab by parent company Subway last month. Since its release, Five Dollar Footlong has become increasingly egotistical and irritable, with its tour rider now spanning twelve pages of exotic items it requires before it will even think about taking the stage an hour late.
In contrast, Saved by Zero’s rise has to fame been a long and hard fought battle. It was first heard in the traditional music market as a song released by rock group “The Fixx” in 1983. It remained stuck in that genre until Toyota re-recorded the song and liberated it in late 2008 to promote its 0% annual interest rate promotion. Because of its slow rise to fame, it says it has been better able to appreciate its new found success without letting it go to its head.
Making the upcoming performance even more historic is the fact that there is also no love lost between the two jingles. In fact, they’ve been trading barbs through the tabloids for the last month. It all started with Five Dollar Footlong calling Saved by Zero “retooled and washed up”. Saved by Zero responded by calling the Subway jingle “Five Drugged Out Footlong”.
