"jack in the box" news and stories

Whether you're rooting for the Steelers or Green Bay (or just the commercials), it's likely you'll tune into the Super Bowl this Sunday. (More than 106 million Americans watched the game last year.) Restaurant owners know the big game equals big business, so you can find all sorts of deals this weekend in honor of Sunday's big showdown.

Hosting a game-day party? You might want to consider serving pizza, since Papa John's, the "official pizza" partner for Super Bowl XLV, is conducting a sweepstakes for anyone who places an online order between 10am and 9:59 pm EST. As reported in Nation's Restaurant News, the chain is giving away $45 gift cards every 45 seconds, and offering $10 large pizzas all day. In addition, registering for "Papa Points" will win you a free large pizza if the game goes into overtime. Pizza Hut, too, is introducing a party option with its "Big Dipper" pizza, $12 for 24 strips of pizza and 4 cups of tomato sauce for dipping.

From the return of the Jack in the Box Bonus Jack burger to a Foursquare deal from Dunkin' Donuts, here's a round-up of fast-food tidbits from today's Nation's Restaurant News:

C'mon back, Jack: The double cheeseburger with "special sauce" that Jack in the Box debuted in the 1970s is back on the menu. The Bonus Jack returns, alone and in a Jack in the Box $3.99 meal deal with fries and a drink.

Bruegger's Says "Tomato": Back for a limited time only is Bruegger's Bagel Bakery's lunch combo of a Four Cheese Panini and Fire Roasted Tomato Soup. They're also bringing back their Cinnamon Roll bagel for sweets lovers.

Dunkin's Foursquare Deal: Check in from a single Dunkin' Donuts location via Foursquare six times and get a free donut. The program has just been launched at Florida locations.

So Long, Charlie? After 29 of CB Holdings restaurants were closed (which include Charlie Brown's and Bugaboo Creek Steak House), CB has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. However, it's reported the remaining restaurants will stay in business.

It's giveaway time at Jack in the Box. Today, from 2 p.m. to midnight, the chain is offering two free tacos to every customer -- there is no coupon or purchase required, reports Nation's Restaurant News. Regularly two for 99 cents, the beef tacos have, according to the company, been improved, although says NRN, a spokesperson for the chain declined to name those improvements.

The latest Jack in the Box ad features the company mascot sprawled in a dentist's chair, hooked up to a line of laughing gas, and, in a loopy moment, deciding to do a no-strings taco giveaway. But wait, what is that guy doing at the dentist's anyway? He has no mouth (unless you count that red smiley line), not to mention teeth. So how does Jack eat his tacos?

For most of us, trying to recall our favorite TV commercial for a restaurant is kind of like trying to recall last night's dreams-a virtually indistinct sequence of half-remembered imagery: the stringy, cheesy uplift of a steaming slice of pizza, a slow pan shot along a foot-long sub, a sizzling fajita.

But the folks at Los Angeles-based Ace Metrix have figured out how to sort through this psycho-mess to determine which commercials are most effective, and they've just released their list of the top 20 restaurant ads of 2010, according to Nation's Restaurant News. (You can see all the commercials at the Ace Metrix site.) How do they do it?

Can money buy friendship? Jack in the Box is hoping so. The fast-food burger joint is channeling the powers of Facebook to build a money bank for one lucky fan.

For every new fan the restaurant gets, a nickel will be added to the pot. The month-long campaign, conceived by Secret Weapon Marketing and revealed this week, will end with one big winner.

Jack in the Box's Facebook page has installed a tab called "Be a Rich Fan," which will keep the pot running live as new fans are added and the pot gets bigger.