Jack Box

Jack (full name: Jack Box) is the mascot of American restaurant chain Jack in the Box. In the advertisements, he is the founder, CEO, and ad spokesman for the chain. According to the company's web site, he has the appearance of a typical male, with the exception of his huge round white head, blue dot eyes, black pointy nose, and a linear red smile. He is most of the time seen wearing his yellow clown cap, and a business suit.

The company's "bio" of him claims the following facts:

Prior to 1980, the chain used a huge clown head as its symbol, which sat atop the remote activated talking drive-thru menu (in the 1960s and early '70's the rotating clown head was also at the top of the large signs at each location). In 1980, the chain decided to establish a more "mature" image by introducing a wider variety of menu items and, most notably, discontinuing the use of Jack. A series of television commercial announced "We're blowing up clowns!" and showed the dramatic explosion of the notorious clown heads. These commercials led to many complaints by parents over the violence. Throughout the late 1980s to the 1990s, Jack in the Box tried to position itself as a premium fast food alternative, with varying results.

In 1993, a major food contamination crisis was linked to Jack in the Box restaurants and by 1994, a series of lawsuits and negative publicity took their tolls and pushed their corporate parent, Foodmaker Inc. to the verge of bankruptcy. In the short term, they decided to promote their initiatives on food safety and then approved a new guerilla advertising campaign created by Dick Sittig, of Secret Weapon marketing in Santa Monica which brought back their original mascot, Jack as a savvy, no-nonsense businessman.