The last two weeks of Olympic football will not define the career of American star Megan Rapino, but they are certainly not happy.First, the national team failed to win the gold medal for the second time in a row Olympic Games, And then the former president Donald Trump Lashed at her verbally.
Now, a group of Subway franchisees hope to withdraw the football player from the advertisement, claiming that her recommendation caused sales to drop and questioned the reputation of the store.
Prior to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Rapinoe became one of the spokespersons of this fast food restaurant, and the advertisement was mainly displayed during the Olympics, which ended on Sunday. She has always been an outspoken member of the women’s national team, paid equal work with the men’s team, provided equal rights to the LGBTQ community, and has always been the kneeling face of athletes outside of American football in the national anthem.
She is a staunch critic of Trump, and Trump constantly criticizes her and her “purple hair”.
Nearly 22,000 Subway restaurants are owned by individual franchisees, and 4.5% of the revenue is returned to the parent company for advertising and other administrative expenses. New York PostSome of these franchise owners are outspoken, saying that they have received records and bad reputation about their business.
“Boycott the subway until the subway fires its anti-Americans… Megan Rapinoe, the scumbag who kneels for our beloved national anthem!” Read a note in a store in Wisconsin.
The owner of that particular store said that they were tired of “apologizing” for the advertisement.
“Advertising should be taken down,” a franchisee said. “Apologizing will be tiring.”
The North American Subway Franchise Association (NAASF) met last month to discuss the advertising and other issues. Illya Berecz, the executive director of the organization, told members that they have expressed concerns to the company.
“Your NAASF Board of Directors has [Subway] Leading the concerns expressed by NAASF members,” Berecz told them.
Most of the complaints and concerns came from red-dominated states and counties across the country.
Kevin C. Cox/Photo by Getty Images
The franchise is mainly composed of husband-and-wife businesses across the country, including this one in Arizona, which stated that the use of corporate funds for “politics” is “across the border”.
They wrote on the NAASF blog: “It is completely out of fashion to use our money to make a political statement.”
The American women who were eliminated by Sweden in the quarter-finals of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics were enough to lose 3-0 to the Swedes, and the Tokyo Olympics opened. The United States responded with a 6-1 victory over New Zealand, and then needed a 0-0 draw with Australia to qualify for this year’s Olympic knockout rounds.
After the regular season and overtime, their quarter-finals ended in a 2-2 draw. Rapino and the Americans defeated the Dutch team in a penalty shootout. Canada defeated the United States 1-0 in the semifinals, which Rapinoe called “a pill that is difficult to swallow.”
The US team defeated the Australian team 4-3 and won the bronze medal.
At this point, Trump attacked Rapino herself when solving the football team’s bronze medal, even though Rapino scored half of her country’s goals in that game and won the bronze medal.
Trump said: “Purple-haired women play terribly and spend too much time thinking about radical left-wing politics without doing their job well.”
Trump went on to say in a prepared statement: “If our football team led by a group of radical leftist madmen does not wake up, they will win the gold medal instead of the bronze medal.”
Rapino said she was quite confused that a former president would oppose the U.S. team at the quadrennial Olympics.
Rapinoe told reporter Jack Doles: “It’s really sad to dig into old bags.” “I just thought,’Do you support people doing bad things?’ Ahem.”
