Last week, a lawsuit accused Subway of using fake fish in its tuna subs. Now, the popular chain is offering a deal on the menu item so customers can try it for themselves and (hopefully) discover that the restaurant's tuna is the real deal.
A new pop-up on Subway's website highlights the restaurant's "100% real wild caught tuna" and touts it as "100% delicious." It also tempts customers with a 15% discount on any tuna footlong sub ordered through the Subway app or website, as first reported by Delish.
The promotion doesn't mention the lawsuit outright, but it certainly appeared to be a creative response to a lawsuit that Subway has vowed to fight. The company even provided customers with a cheeky promo code for the sale: "ITSREAL."
Curious to know if the deal was inspired by the pending lawsuit, TODAY Food reached out to Subway, and a spokesperson for the company offered the following statement: “We are running a promotion that offers 15% off one of our delicious, wild-caught tuna footlong subs on the Subway app and online using the code ITSREAL. This promotion reinforces that the tuna our Franchisees serve to their guests every day is 100% real, cooked tuna.”
Subway's Twitter account also addressed the rumors and stood by the company's assertion that the tuna subs are indeed made with tuna.
The account also replied to several Twitter users who weren't sure which side to believe.
News of the lawsuit first broke last week when two customers filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that they “were tricked into buying food items that wholly lacked the ingredients they reasonably thought they were purchasing.”
Alameda County residents Karen Dhanowa and Nilima Amin claim that Subway's tuna sandwiches "are made from anything but tuna," and are suing Subway for several claims including fraud, intentional misrepresentation and unjust enrichment.
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The restaurant denies all the claims and offered the following statement to TODAY last week: “There simply is no truth to the allegations in the complaint that was filed in California. Subway delivers 100% cooked tuna to its restaurants, which is mixed with mayonnaise and used in freshly made sandwiches, wraps and salads that are served to and enjoyed by our guests."
The fishy debate has caught the attention of many customers, including Jessica Simpson, who famously confused Chicken of the Sea tuna with actual chicken during an iconic moment of her MTV reality show "Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica" in 2003.
After watching TODAY's story about the lawsuit on Twitter, the singer and entrepreneur had a pretty priceless reaction.
"It’s OK @SUBWAY. It IS confusing," she wrote, retweeting the segment.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
