Subway Says 'Footlong' Is Not Intended To Be A Measurement Of Length

Subway Australia has responded to the outcry sparked by the photo of an 11-inch 'footlong' sub that was posted on its Facebook page by teen Matt Corby.

It's questionable.

Here's the statement Subway Australia posted on Facebook:

The post has since been taken down.

The most important part:

"With regards to the size of the bread and calling it a footlong, "SUBWAY FOOTLONG" is a registered trademark as a descriptive name for the sub sold in Subway Restaurants and not intended to be a measurement of length."

But Buzzfeed's Copyranter offers up these examples from a 2008 commercial from Subway. The ad is quite explicit about the length of a footlong – one foot:

And here's the photo that started all of this:

Matt Corby on Facebook