Jack in The Box - Advertising

Advertising

The restaurant rebounded in popularity in the mid-1990s, after a highly successful marketing campaign that featured the fictitious Jack in the Box CEO "Jack" character (voiced by the campaign's creator, Santa Monica advertising executive Dick Sittig), who has a ping pong ball-like head and is dressed in a business suit.

Jack was reintroduced specifically to signal the new direction the company was taking to refocus and regroup after the E. coli disaster. In the original 1994 spot, Jack ("through the miracle of plastic surgery", he says as he confidently strides into the office building) reclaims his rightful role as CEO, and, apparently as revenge for being blown up in 1980, approaches the closed doors of the Jack in the Box boardroom (a fictionalized version, shown while the aforementioned minimalist theme music from the 1980s Jack in the Box commercials plays), activates a detonation device, and the boardroom explodes in a shower of smoke, wood, and paper. The spot ends with a close-up shot of a small white paper bag, presumably filled with Jack in the Box food, dropping forcefully onto a table; the bag is printed with the words "Jack's Back" in bold red print, then another bag drops down with the Jack in the Box logo from that period. Later ads feature the first bag showing the text of the item the commercial is promoting.

The commercials in the now 18-year-old "Jack's Back" campaign (which has won several advertising industry awards) tend to be lightly humorous and often involve Jack making business decisions about the restaurant chain's food products, or out in the field getting ideas for new menu items. In addition, many commercials have advertised free car antenna balls with every meal, thus increasing brand awareness. Often different types of antenna balls were available during a holiday or major event. The antenna balls have since been discontinued due to the demise of the mast-type car antenna.

During the height of the now-defunct XFL, one of the continuing ad series involved a fictitious professional American football team owned by Jack. The team, called the Carnivores, played against teams such as the Tofu Eaters and the Vegans.

Another ad circa 2000 involved a man washed up on a remote island with only a Jack in the Box antenna ball as company. Later that year, director Robert Zemeckis, claiming the agency had appropriated elements of his Oscar-nominated film Cast Away for the ad, had his lawsuit against the ad agency thrown out.

In 1997, a successful advertising campaign was launched using a fictional musical group called the Spicy Crispy Girls (a take off of the Spice Girls, a British pop music girl group - at the time one of the most popular groups in the world), in comedic national television commercials. The commercials were used to promote the new Jack in the Box Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich, with the girls dancing in "the Jack groove." The Spicy Crispy Girls concept was used as a model for another successful advertising campaign called the 'Meaty Cheesy Boys' to promote the Ultimate Cheeseburger (see below). At the 1998 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, one of the Spicy Crispy Girls commercials won the top award for humor.

The Meaty Cheesy Boys, a mock boy band to promote the Ultimate Cheeseburger, were created during an ad campaign featuring an out-of-control advertising executive previously fired by Jack. The same ad exec featured in a spot where a medical doctor made exaggerated claims of the benefits of fast food that it would cure baldness, help trim extra pounds, and remove wrinkles. Jack asks the ad exec incredulously, "Where did you find this guy?" The ad exec responds proudly, "Tobacco company."

In April 2006, Jack in the Box launched an ad campaign called Bread is Back, taking a stab at the low carbohydrate diets of recent years.

In 2006, Jack in the Box took use of this perception creating a commercial featuring a typical stoner who is indecisive about ordering. When faced with a decision, the Jack in the Box figurine in his car tells him to "stick to the classics" and order 30 tacos implying that he has the "munchies". This ad later stirred up controversy among a San Diego teen group who claimed that the ad was irresponsible showing a teenager who was under the influence of drugs. To protest, they presented the company with 2000 postcards protesting the ad, despite the fact that it had not aired since the beginning of the previous month. This commercial was redone in 2009 to feature the new logo and the new Campaign.

Another ad touting the chain's milk shakes aired circa 2003 and was shot in the stilted style of a 1970s-era anti-drug spot, urging kids to "say no to fake shakes" and featured "Larry The Crime Donkey," a parody of McGruff the Crime Dog.

In 2007, Jack in the Box began a commercial campaign for their new 100% sirloin beef hamburgers, implying that they were of higher quality than the Angus beef used by Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Wendy's, and Burger King. That May, CKE Restaurants, Inc., the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, filed a lawsuit against Jack in the Box, Inc. CKE claimed, among other things, that the commercials tried to give the impression that Carl's Jr./Hardee's Angus beef hamburgers contained cow anuses by having an actor swirl his finger in the air in a circle while saying "Angus" in one commercial and having other people in the second commercial laugh when the word "Angus" was mentioned. They also attacked Jack in the Box's claim that sirloin, a cut found on all cattle, was of higher quality than Angus beef, which is a breed of cattle.

During Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009, a commercial depicted Jack in a Full Body Cast after getting hit by a bus. The closing shot encouraged viewers to visit a company website designed to encourage him to get better. At the same website, one can view different videos that speak of Jack's condition. These videos include a cell phone video of Jack's accident. Also, previously ran commercials of Jack include a disclaimer that reads "Recorded before Jack's accident." After a month in a coma, Jack woke up when his second-in-command, Phil, thinking Jack wasn't aware yet, revealed he was changing the name of the chain to "Phil in the Box". This woke Jack up, and he began to strangle Phil, shouting "PHIL IN THE BOX?! I DON'T THINK SO! SOMEBODY FIND MY PANTS! I GOT WORK TO DO!".

Shortly after the "awakening", it was revealed that the corporate website would be relaunched, and the company would get a new logo, on March 16, 2009.

In October 2009, Jack in the Box debuted a popular commercial to market their "Teriyaki Bowl" meals. The commercial features employees getting "bowl cut" hair cuts. At the end of the commercial, Jack reveals that his "bowl cut" is a wig, to the dismay of the employees.