Jimmy John’s unlawful KC ad campaign lands on a new downtown competitor’s doorstep

Dan Walsh had taken just a quick break from his new downtown Spokes Cafe & Cyclery, but when he returned he found an unwelcome surprise at his doorstep:

A white stenciled ad on the sidewalk in front of the shop at 929 Walnut St.: “You are in a Jimmy John’s Sandwich Delivery Zone” with a web address to place an order.

“I just opened a few days ago and suddenly this shows up?” Walsh said. “I don’t know if it was directed toward us or part of a larger guerrilla campaign but I was kind of surprised.”

He felt targeted, especially since his eatery had just received its liquor license on Wednesday, the day the ad appeared. He tweeted out a photo of the ad to city officials, creating a flurry on Twitter, with 97 retweets and 160 likes by Friday morning.

“What does this say about the @jimmyjohns brand? What I’ve always thought of as quirky, endearing, and trustworthy is now completely distasteful. Does corporate stand by this?” wrote one commenter.

“Now I may check out @spokeskc to see what they are about,” wrote another. “Not cool what Jimmy John’s did there.”

Sean O’Byrne, executive director of the Downtown Community Improvement District, was already on it.

His team — dubbed the bumblebees for their yellow and black uniforms — said O’Byrne can spot a graffiti tag on a sign 15 blocks away. Their goal? Take down the tags within 24 hours.

So they set to work on about a dozen Jimmy John’s sidewalk ads, first covering them with Tagaway graffiti removal to loosen what they said was paint, and then blasting the ad with a power washer.

But a local Jimmy John’s community and catering manager, Tweeting a response to the Spokes post, said the ads were made with a “temporary, eco-friendly, water-based spray chalk” that’s meant to wear off in a week or two.

The manager, Brooke Berra, said the ads were placed in several high-traffic areas around the city, and “in no way was this aimed at Spokes. I along with other JJ’s employees personally dine at Spokes almost weekly.” She apologized for the “poor” placement. Walsh said she also stopped in to apologize in person.

A company spokesman also released this statement: “Jimmy John’s is genuinely sorry if our temporary chalk-art offended anyone. We are removing the eco-friendly stencils throughout the city.”

O’Byrne said people often aren’t caught in the act of tagging, so the building owners are then responsible for having the graffiti removed. Or, in this case, the Community Improvement District employees took care of it.

But two of the ads could still be seen Thursday afternoon, between the Jimmy John’s at 923 Broadway and the Subway at 905 Broadway.

Businesses really shouldn’t be using public infrastructure for advertising, said Maggie Green, spokeswoman for the city Public Works Department, which, along with the 311 Action Center, reached out to Jimmy John’s.

“Guerrilla marketing is unlawful in the public right-of-way. Jimmy John’s is well aware that it is unacceptable. We have been in touch with Jimmy John’s hoping they removed it,” Green said. “We’re not trying to be the bad guys, but we have to hold everyone to the standards that we put forth through city ordinance. We appreciate their cooperation.”

Walsh also is a partner in the original Spokes, which opened at 1200 Washington St. in 2017. While he would like to see even more eateries in the downtown loop, if sidewalk advertising was allowed, Walsh said he would plaster his Spokes ads on every intersection downtown.

He most likely wouldn’t be the only one.

“But we want to be friendly with everybody,” he said. “Eat at Jimmy John’s a few days a week, eat here a few days.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2019 at 12:11 PM.