Jack in the Box has bowls
It’s not clear who’s the sufferer in the nightmare triggered by Jack in the Box’s new advertising campaign: the chain itself, or the competitors who find the new messaging literally parked outside their entrances.
The campaign spotlights Jack’s new line of bowl meals. The yuck-yuck is that “bowls” is said in contexts that call “balls” to mind. As in, “Only Jack has the bowls to serve teriyaki,” or Jack’s mascot boasting, “I’m the only one with the bowls to serve something different.”
The controversy stems from the use of the gag in sexually tinged situations, like a woman commenting to a male co-worker, “Those are some nice bowls,” or another saying, “Everyone’s going to want to get their hands on Jack’s bowls.”
A columnist for Adweek, a former sister of Restaurant Business, called the spots “genital jokes,” and blasted them as “the most tone-deaf ads of the #metoo era.”
Meanwhile, competitors are left with a dilemma. As part of the campaign, Jack is putting billboard trucks in competitors’ parking lots. The mobile ads read, “Only Jack has the bowls to serve teriyaki,” one of the varieties in the new line.
Other than chasing the trucks off private property, do they ignore the pun and let teenage customers have a good giggle; respond with off-color snipes of their own; or hold their heads and wait for the whole thing to pass?