Jack in the Box
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jack in the Box, Inc. | |
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| Type | Public (NYSE: JBX) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1951 (San Diego, CA) |
| Headquarters | San Diego, CA |
| Key people | Linda Lang, CEO & Chairman |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Products | Fast food (including hamburgers, french fries, and milkshakes) |
| Revenue |  $2.322 billion USD (2004) |
| Employees | 45,000 |
| Slogan | We Don't Make It Until You Order It. |
| Website | www.jackinthebox.com |
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For other uses of the term "Jack in the Box", see Jack-in-the-Box (disambiguation).
Jack in the Box (NYSE: JBX) is an American fast-food restaurant founded in 1951. In total, the chain has 2,062 locations in 17 U.S. states, mostly in the western half of the country. Most of the outlets are in California (892), followed by Texas (547), Arizona (157), and Washington (129). The company also operates the Qdoba Mexican Grill chain and the Quick Stuff convenience store chain.
Some of its food items include the Big Cheeseburger, Potato Wedges, and Ultimate Cheeseburger. The company also offers ethnic cuisine--such as egg rolls and tacos, along with breakfast burritos. New items come in on a rotation, every three years -- including the Philly Cheesesteak and the deli style pannidos. In locations in Hawaii, local delicacies are a regular part of the menu. They include the Paniolo Breakfast (Portuguese sausage, eggs, and rice platter), teriyaki chicken and rice bowl (now discontinued), and saimin. In the Southeastern United States, the company offers biscuits and sweet tea. Recently, Jack in the Box also introduced its own Ciabatta Burger, which is currently offered in a variety of styles. Its more recent foray in to the deli market was the less-popular Ultimate Club Sandwich which was initially removed in Arizona due to poor sales and has since been phased out at all locations.
Many Jack in the Box locations are freestanding, while others may be attached to some gas station service centers or at malls and shopping centers. All Jack in the Box locations serve the entire menu, including breakfast, during all operational hours, and many Jack in the Box locations are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
In early 2004, Jack in the Box Inc. introduced its new "fast casual" restaurant, JBX Grill. By 2006, however, Jack in the Box canceled the JBX Grill idea, reverting all JBX Grills back into original Jack in the Box stores. This was due to poor sales, and it allowed them to focus on core expansion.
In May 2006, the CEO Jack character launched his own MySpace, complete with a fictional biography.
In 2006, Jack in the Box Inc. announced plans for nationwide expansion by 2010. As of yet, no specific locations have been announced.
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[edit] Advertising campaigns
In the 1970s, Jack in the Box commercials involved a small 3 1/2-year-old joyous boy named Rodney Allen Rippy. He usually sang, "Make life a little easier..."
The restaurant gained in popularity after a highly successful marketing campaign that featured the fictitious Jack in the Box CEO "Jack" character, who has a ping pong ball-like head and is dressed in a business suit. Its commercials tend to be lightly humorous and often involves Jack making business decisions about the restaurant chain's food products. In addition, many of its commercials have advertised free car antenna balls with every meal, thus increasing brand awareness. Hence, these Jack in the Box antenna balls can be seen on many cars, especially on the West Coast. They are also considered collector's items.
Originally, Jack was a clown-like character, but he was blown up and supposedly "killed" in a 1980 commercial to give the chain a more mature appeal and look, under the new name, "Monterey Jack's". He returned ("thanks to the miracle of plastic surgery," according to Jack) in his more serious, modern form in 1995. At the end of his first commercial back, he "blew up" the Board of Directors as retribution. In 1999, Foodmaker Inc., the corporate name of Jack in the Box, was renamed to fit its core brand.
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 around 2000 involved a man washed up on a remote island with only a Jack in the Box antenna ball as company. The ad effectively mocked both the movie Cast Away and the TV show Survivor. Later it turned out that Jack in the Box's advertising agency had copied the concept from a young film director who had sent them the idea in hopes of profiting from it. The director's lawsuit against the ad agency was thrown out; his sample ad had used Jack in the Box's character, logo, and ending images (the dropping of paper bags) without permission.
The Meaty Cheesy Boys, a mock boy band, were created during an ad campaign featuring an out-of-control advertising executive previously fired by Jack.
In April 2006, Jack in the Box launched an ad campaign called Bread is Back, taking a stab at the low-carb diets of recent years. Also, the commercials aired in states far away from a Jack in the Box location.
[edit] Slogans
- Watch out Mac. Jack's Back!
- We don't make it 'til you order it!
- We don't stop serving breakfast at 10.30am. Heck, we don't even stop serving it at 10.30pm!
[edit] Food safety
In 1993, Jack in the Box suffered a major crisis involving E. coli bacteria. Four people died and hundreds of others became sick after eating undercooked hamburgers contaminated with the bacteria at locations in the Seattle area and other parts of the Pacific Northwest. The chain was faced with several lawsuits, each of which was quickly settled. Due to the backlash reaction to the crisis, Jack in the Box closed all of its locations in Colorado by May 1996. A food-safety initiative was put into place, including a new mandate that Jack in the Box hamburgers be cooked well-done instead of rare, as was previously done.
[edit] Trivia
The familiar drive-thru clown head appears in the films Scavenger Hunt (1979) and My Fellow Americans (1996).
The advertisements for the Outlaw Burger promote it as "New," but this is in fact the return of the same burger with the same name that appeared in 1996.
[edit] Locations
[edit] United States
- Arizona
- California
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Louisiana
- Missouri
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Washington
[edit] Mexico
- Baja California
- Sonora (opened in 1993 and closed mid 1997)
[edit] International
In the early '90s, Jack in the Box was expanded to various countries, such as:
The Hong Kong locations closed late 1998 and 1999.
