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Subway faces backlash over ‘distasteful’ sign referring to the Titan implosion

A sign on a franchise of America’s most popular sandwich chain was taken down after it made light of the Titan submersible tragedy.

On Saturday, Timothy Mauck, of Brooklet, Georgia, posted a photo of the sign outside a Subway sandwich shop in nearby Rincon that reads, “Our subs don’t implode.”

The sign refers to the five people who were killed aboard OceanGate’s Titan submersible after it imploded tens of thousands of feet below the surface of the water. 

The submarine was on a voyage to see the wreck of the Titanic before it lost contact with those above water on June 18 and went missing for four days. After the wreckage of the submersible was found, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed all five passengers' deaths on June 22, saying debris found was consistent with a “catastrophic implosion.”

Reaction to the image has mostly ranged from utter disbelief to anger.

“That’s just wrong,” commented one Facebook user.

“This is tacky to say the least. In Rincon, GA. Be better Subway,” someone else tweeted.

“@SUBWAY this is at your store in Rincon, GA. Not only is it distasteful, it’s just sad. Do better,” tweeted another person.

When reached for comment, Subway confirmed it was aware of the sign and say it has spoken to the franchise about it.

“We have been in contact with the franchise about this matter and made it clear that this kind of comment has no place in our business,” a Subway spokesperson tells TODAY.com. “The sign has since been removed.”

A follow-up post by Mauck confirms this: In an image he posted July 2, the same Subway sign now appears blank.

Mauck says he took the photo because he found the sign to be surprisingly disrespectful.

“I’m sure it would be disrespectful to the family, you know what I mean?” Mauck said. “It was a very uncalled for kind of thing because that’s a place of business, and for one of their employees to put that up on their sign that only lets everybody know that the situation is a joke.”

Mauck says that even though he was taken aback by the sign, he “didn’t expect it to go as far as it went.”

Although Mauck doesn’t see the humor in it, the Titan submersible tragedy has inspired the internet to create quite a collection of “eat the rich”-style memes and jokes about the fate of the wealthy passengers, who paid $250,000 each to take their ill-fated trip.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/subway-faces-backlash-distasteful-sign-referencing-titan-implosion-rcna92820


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