Who could Jack in the Box's demographic be?

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Late night hunger? Well that is what Jack in the Box is looking to cure. The late night munchie meal has arrived.  Guaranteed two tacos, assortment of fries, drink, and your choice of a third food substance. Wow and it's only $6. But one look at the Jack in the Box commercial(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYwZfWcokyI) one begins to ask, who are they pandering to?


Describe: The commercial(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYwZfWcokyI) starts off with Jack and what looks to be a college age guy playing video games. Jack then looks up to the clock and tells the guy it's 9 pm. Jack then asks the guy if he knows what happens at 9. The guys response, "we turn into werewolves?" Jack then begins to explain his late night munchie box. The commercial ends with the two going through the same dialogue when the clock hits 9:37 pm. As in all Jack in the Box commercials, Jack is present. The ad is about 30 seconds long. I first saw it when I was watching an episode of "South Park" at around 10 pm. This ad was the first in what has been three late night munchie ads.


Analyze: The persuasive technique is plain folks. Besides Jack, the other characters in the commercials are unknowns. The ad makes us feel like the product geared toward us, with the technique used. The ad uses "Myth" as it plays on the college age kid, with the actor being used and the low price of the late night munchie meal.

Interpret: The ad is  definetly targeted at college aged kids. It is showed at times later in the evening, usually at around 9 pm. As well as usually networks that produce shows that are viewed to that demographic. There is one big stereotype in the ads which is the typical "stoner" college student. The ad shows Jack playing video games with a 20ish aged guy playing video games and talking about food, now this sounds like a scene from a "Harold and Kumar" movie.

Evaluate: Well the strength of the ads are the airing time. Speaking as a college student I see these commercials a lot. I found it hilarious because you can obviously tell what the commercial is portraying.  As well as the price of the product, being a reasonable $6.

Engage: In looking up this ad campaign online, I found that according to "USAToday"(Link) that Jack in the Box is catering to "stoned Millennials," says registered diatition Robyn Flipse. The article then goes on to describe how unhealthy the late night munchie box is. The article at 247wallst.com states that Jack in the Box has been catering to the "party age" demographic for years using buzzwords such as "munchies curfew, late night lovers, when things get twisted." The article also notes that financial benefits of the "late night" campaign. Based on the ad I would feel purchase the product, if the need arose. I feel I would recommend the late night box to other people, based on the reasonable price.

 What I learned from this is how important these late night meals are to fast food chains. The fact that strategist are hired to come up with creative campaigns for these "late night" campaigns. What surprised me is how blunt Jack in the Box had been in their portrayal of the "stoner" character. Very blunt that there have been multiple articles written about it.