Subway sandwich fanatic Jared Fogle searches for successor in Canada

Jared Fogle recently received the star treatment as Subway launched the search to find his Canadian equivalent.

More than a dozen years after he was discovered with crediting the sandwiches for a 245-pound weight loss in an article published in his Indiana University newspaper, the fast-food chain has returned to promoting itself as the conduit for a healthier lifestyle.

The new Commit to Fit ambassador search, which Fogle promoted in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Halifax and Toronto, has promised $10,000 in cash and $500 in gift cards to two people with the best personal photos or videos of Jared-like transformations.

Online voters will be asked to look for entrants who achieved a healthier look, adopted a regular fitness routine, followed a specific nutrition plan and succeeded in stress management. But they also have to show this was achieved by eating at Subway.

Fogle has earned considerably more than $10,000 in his career as the face, and waist, of Subway in North America. But after he hung up his former 60-inch pants in 2008, and launched a foundation to fight childhood obesity instead, paparazzi photographs revealed he was back to battling the bulge after getting divorced.

After he met the woman who would become his second wife, the Subway spokesman pledged to drop 40 pounds in 2010, and spent the year training for the New York City Marathon.

The attention suggested the public was still intrigued by Fogle's comeback story. And promotion of the Subway diet has returned with him.

But the suggestion of using the sandwiches for weight control continue to come with conditions. Fogle's famous order of a turkey sub for lunch and veggie sub for dinner meant holding off on the cheese, mayonnaise and oil. And the restaurant has never promised that others will reap similar rewards from eating there.

Subway is willing to bet two Canadians will, though. The winners of the Commit to Fit contest will stand alongside the fast-food mascot who stands to outlive any other.

Unlike all of those cartoon contemporaries, though, Jared has a contractual obligation to watch his weight.

(Getty Images)