San Diego-based, fast-food hamburger chain Jack in the Box has launched a new advertising campaign with celebrity hip-hop rapper Ice Cube.
The campaign promotes a new “Munchie Meal” menu item that includes a Chick-N-Tater Melt, which is a croissant sandwich stuffed with a fried chicken patty, a small drink and a choice of taco, curly fries or mini churro. Priced at $12, the Ice Cube Munchie Meal is available nationwide from June 3 to July 14 at Jack’s more than 2,200 restaurants across 22 states.
“We’re excited to bring Cube’s Munchie Meal to a Jack near you,” Jack in the Box’s chief marketing officer Ryan Ostrom said in a statement to Times of San Diego.
“Not only is Cube a West Coast legend, he also grew up eating Jack in the Box and is a true fan of the brand. When we dream up our ideal partners, someone like Ice Cube is exactly who we hope for, unexpected and totally authentic.”
The campaign, created in collaboration with creative agency TBWA\Chiat\Day L.A., includes a hilarious 30-second commercial starring the rapper with Jack Box, the mascot for Jack in the Box. The spot, titled “Angrily Happy,” shows Jack Box confused as Ice Cube angrily rants about how happy his Munchie Meal makes him feel.
Muse by Clio’s advertising writer David Gianatasio wrote, “Watching an irate Ice Cube smash a lamp into one of his framed platinum records, while Jack Box looks on in distress, is worth the price of admission. Such silly scenes await as Jack in the Box introduces Cube’s Munchie Meal.”
The script includes Ice Cube saying, “Hey, yo Jack. We need to talk about my Munchie Meal. This chicken tater melt is totally delish. I’m genuinely tickled, it’s like I’m eating pure joy on a crossant-looking thing. My tummy and my mouth are on a bicycle built for two.”
The spot will appear until mid-July on TV, digital and social media platforms, including Twitter, TikTok and Instagram, a Jack in the Box spokesperson told Times of San Diego. Total media expenditures were not disclosed.
The spokesperson said one reason Ice Cube was selected for the ad campaign was his 2008 track that boasts, “My head is so big they call me Jack N the Box.”
A statement to Times of San Diego said, “The SoCals icons (Jack Box and Ice Cube) are finally coming together with a cultural presence and consumer appeal that caters to the rowdy, late-night vibes they both know and love.”
According to Jeff O’Keefe, creative director at TBWA\Chiat\Day L.A., as reported by Muse by Clio, “The brand wanted to build on the success of last year’s Snoop’s Munchie Meal, which led to the most successful late-night window in the history of the brand, and Ice Cube was the perfect fit. He’s not just beloved as a musician and an actor, but truly synonymous with Southern California culture.
” He also happens to have a classic song with a title almost too good to be true, ‘`’Jack N the Box.’’’ We knew there’d be a lot of material to work with once we gave Cube his own Munchie Meal and got these two together.”
It’s Eileen Gaffen’s Way to `Ease Into Retirement’
It’s her way to “ease into retirement,” as she calls it. After a 40-year career in communications, Eileen Gaffen has announced her Steres Gaffen Media agency will change from a full-service public relations agency to a freelance publicity services business.
“The shift comes as I ease into retirement,” Gaffen told Times of San Diego. “Steres Gaffen Media will no longer be taking on long-term, agency-of-record engagements. Instead, I’ll be working as a freelancer with PR and digital marketing agencies needing help on a limited basis.
“I’ll also be working with organizations that have short-term goals and need a publicist to, for example, create awareness, tell their story, influence opinion, or promote an event,” Gaffen added.
After working at KFMB-TV as an Emmy-award winning TV news producer in the 1980s, Gaffen operated Steres Gaffen Media from 1988 to 1995, when she relocated to Kansas City to work in executive communications management positions at Sprint and Hallmark. She returned to San Diego in 2013 as chief advancement officer at Girl Scouts San Diego before reestablishing Steres Gaffen Media in 2014.
“I’ve been in the communications business for four decades and my client partners value the expertise that comes from a wealth of experience to grow their businesses,” Gaffen said. “Why retire when I can continue to offer sought-after consulting, writing, and publicity services on a project basis?”
Gaffen can be reached at www.steresgaffenmedia.com.
InnoVision Named National AOR for ALS Association
San Diego-based InnoVision Marketing Group has announced it has been named the national agency-of-record for the nonprofit ALS Association.
A statement said InnoVision will support the ALS Association’s marketing needs for public relations, video production and social media to generate awareness of the cause and highlight the need for community support on a nationwide basis.
Over the past few years, InnoVision has collaborated with the ALS Association in San Diego with strategic initiatives and events, according to Steve Becvar, ALS Association VP for sports and entertainment and former executive director of the ALS Association Greater San Diego Chapter.
“Year over year, InnoVision Marketing Group has shown its unwavering support for the ALS community here in San Diego,” said Becvar. “Their commitment and dedication to supporting those in greatest need aligns perfectly with the mission of the ALS Association. Together, we look forward to making significant strides in our fight against ALS and enhancing the quality of life for those affected by this disease.”
“We are thrilled to be able to help the ALS Association continue to spread the word about the life-changing impact they have on those impacted by ALS,” said Alanna Markey, senior VP and GM, InnoVision Marketing Group. “Any time we have an opportunity to give back to the community through lending our talents to organizations creating positive change, it is so rewarding for our team. After working with the ALS Association for years on specific projects, we are thrilled to be able to partner with them as agency of record.”
InnoVision said its other nonprofit clients include Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, National Native American Human Resources Association and the Fentanyl United Crisis Coalition.
ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often called Lou Gehrig’s disease, named after the New York Yankee baseball player who passed away from ALS at age 37 in 1941, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects neurons, or nerve cells, in the brain and the spinal cord.
Eventually, people with ALS lose the ability to initiate and control muscle movement, which usually leads to total paralysis. Life expectancy for a person with ALS is within two to five years of diagnosis of initial symptoms. There is no cure, cause or no life-prolonging treatments for the disease.
Election Advertising: GOP Should Buy Radio, Dems Podcasts
Political candidates and ad buyers with advertising dollars to spend on audio outlets this election season have a clear choice, a recent survey found. GOP candidates should buy airtime on radio stations and Democrats should buy podcasts.
According to Edison Research’s latest Share of Ear blog post, released May 29, Republicans were nine times more likely to listen to AM/FM radio than the average U.S. adult. Also, ad-supported, spoken-word channels on Sirius XM draw a large audience of Republicans, said Edison.
Meanwhile, Edison said Democrats were 21 times more likely to listen to a podcast than the average U.S. adult.
Independents, who often tip an election, may be the hardest for ad buyers to target. Edison said registered independents are three times more likely to listen to ad-supported streaming music channels and 23 times more likely to watch music videos on YouTube.
“It’s important to emphasize that campaigns at all levels should be putting more of their money into audio,” Edison’s blog post said. “Fully 84% of the voting-age public is reached by ad-supported audio daily.”
To determine political affiliation, Edison said survey respondents were asked, “No matter how you vote, do you usually think of yourself as a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or something else?”
“Regardless of the party that buyers are trying to reach with political ads, audio stands out as a superior pathway to reaching voters,” said Edison. “Audio provides enormous audiences and often a far less cluttered political environment than other ad channels.”
In its report about the Edison survey, Inside Radio, an industry trade media outlet, also added that a Nielsen study said radio outperforms broadcast TV in reaching registered voters, including Republicans (93% to 90%), Democrats (92% to 85%) and unaffiliated voters (92% to 79%).
Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.
