Soaked Up Philly Like a Sponge

Commercial? what Commercial?
A Jack-in-the-Box Commercial?
What commercial? Where? When?
Portray what people? How? In Philadelphia? ~Not very popular there....

For those of us who have not seen it, clue us in, please.
How funny. So much chatter, spurred on by a TV Commercial!

But fun. Thank you Mr. Edgarblythe!

fatima10

In Houston this Jack in the Box commercial must air fifty times a day - after beginning its run three or four months ago. The character, Kevin, is a nerdy guy in a business suit, pegged by Jack to go to Philly to learn all there is to know about making Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. "I'll do my best, sir." Kevin returns with shoulder length hair, a wild outfit and a swaggering attitude. When Jack calls upon him he spouts, in an overly loud voice, "JackIE! How's it hanging, bro? I soaked up Philly like a sponge." Jack gives his spiel about how well they did on the sandwices. Kevin is seen right in the face of the woman who's been following Jack with a pen and a pad. He says, "How are YOU doing?" As Jack says, "Perhaps we did a little too good", Kevin is making Kissing motions at the woman.

Philly, What Planet
edgarblythe~
Either: 1) Jack-in-the-box had a generic commercial, and assigned the name of the town Philly, for no reason much;
2) J-I-T-B, DEFINITELY did not do their pre-production homework;
3) That is someone's idea of a joke;
4) Philly is getting dissed;
5) Maybe Houston residents associate good, fast-food eating with Philly, or
6) Who know what else it could be.

Yet, I can tell you one thing that is definite. THAT commercial could not be aired in Philly and survive. Mamajuana, back me up on this one?

Think of the Philly fans. Take for instance, the ....Flyers' fans. Put them in that commercial. Then tell me what you think.

I "soaked it up like a sponge?" : That sound like it was written originally in another language and then, that was the closest translation. I assure you, Philly people do not "soak things up like a sponge". Heck, they think of sponges as the packet of pink, blue and yellow sponges, sold at supermarkets. Nothing wrong with that.

<psssssssst - what is Jack in the Box?>

The pretzels! Ah, the pretzels! Heavenly.

(And edgar, yes, stereotypically, the bad grammar as well. Many do escape Philadelphia with good grammar, I don't want to imply that everyone who enters the vortex turns into your Kevin, but the grammar, clothing, and hair styles generally do seem to come from a really bad movie about 80s middle-class stereotypes.)

(My family escaped, but we left our relatives behind.)

Oops, so I read the first page, failed to notice that there were second and third pages, and posted, without realizing that we were talking about a commercial... (I don't have a TV, so I haven't seen it.)

As far as I know, Jack in the Box only exists in the South. Not in Philadelphia. I have not had their Philadelphia-inspired cheese steak, nor do I intend to. I have only eaten their Supreme Croissant, and that I won't admit to just anybody... (I know there is no way to hide horse meat in there! Cheese steak is another matter entirely.)

Anyway, I stand by my original statement that while there are many refined and educated individuals in Philadelphia, Kevin as quoted here represents a stereotype who was founded in reality. There are lots of Kevins running around making Philly look bad.

Jack in the Box makes hamburgers, like McDonalds does. Originally, these people's drive through had a jack in the box clown on top of it. Then the genius execs did a commercial in which they blew up the clown. They were striving for the "adult" market in fast food. After years of mediocre sales and dull commercials, they did a commercial in which the clown came back and blew up the execs. Suddenly, their commercials were interesting and generally funny. Sometimes too much for television. One they only aired very late at night; it resembled an episode of cops: In it, Jack has taken a survey of all who have never tried one of his hamburgers. He knocks on one these people's door and tells the man to try the hamburger. The man steadfastly refuses, but Jack won't take "No" for an answer. When he gets too pushy the man bolts for the alley with Jack in hot persuit. He tackles the man and says, "Try my sandwich." He finally forces a bite on the man, who then loves it. They are a pretty large chain.

Aha, marycat. Now we're getting somewhere. So, there is a basis for Kevin? I thought we were about to end with a stalemate.

There is a basis for Kevin. I am, unfortunately, related by marriage to several of him. (Not my marriage, but my aunt's.)

Did you hear that Jack in the Box got in trouble years ago for selling horsemeat-burgers? Brian (native Texan) told me that last week when I told him that there were still horse-rendering plants in Texas. He was completely not surprised about the horses, but in my northeastern naivete I was absolutely shocked.

I heard the story, but it was my belief at the time the horse meat came from Australia.

Here,in their own words, is what Jack in the Box is all about.
Jack in the Box

Thanks for the explanation. I felt like I'd entered the twilight zone there.

Okay, so I got really curious and tried to learn about the horsemeat thing, and I can't find anything about it. Urban legend, anyone?

I did find numerous stories from 1993 about e. coli contamination of their ground beef. In one outbreak, thousands of people were infected and four children died. None of the stories mention horse meat.

Jack in the Box now gets pretty good Board of Health rankings, by the way.

Hmm.

They haven't had any new stories like that in the past few years. Not to be defending them or anything, but, I have been noticing that in the Houston area the fast food places have hired crews that don't seem to give a damn about product or the public. (There are some who definitely do care). It seems to depend on the individual crew, whether or not the manager keeps things in order. My wife and I went to four or five different fast food places a few years ago and every single one gave either shoddy service or product. I had to take her to the doctor after eating in one of them. Now we are much more selective where we eat.

I've been out of Philly for many years, but the rest of the family still lives there, and thinks a drive to the next state to see me is a major undertaking.

I still haven't seen the commercial, so I don't know about it. Nor do I know much about Jack-in-the box. But that picture of a Philly cheese steak looks more like one of those hamburger things than any steak I've ever seen. And I've never had one, either. My years in Philly were spent eating my mother's and family's cooking, pizzas, toasted cinnamon buns, the famous sticky buns, and some really excellent Italian food and seafood.

Philadelphia got some things hung upon it (probably out of envy). Rocky presented a picture that made everybody think that was the typical Philadelphian. W.C. Fields made his famous remark about what a day in Philly seemed like.

A lot of jokes about Philly, but I'll stack it up against anywhere. And leave off the cheese steak - despite the hype, it's just not us.

The pretzel is. By the way, I don't know about today, but Kevin was never a name that went over big in my city.

I have always discounted the negative stories about any place in the world until I've had a chance to investigate. Rocky did not give me a negative image of that city, because I see Stallone and not place in it. It is, to me, a great movie. We won't mention the Rockys two three and so on. I am aware that Kevin is a cartoon. I just didn't know where they came up with that specific image.

Speaking of image in commercials - There is one aired in Texas (not that long ago) in which the cowboys are gathered around the camp for the evening meal. Cookie has handed them an off brand of picante sauce. The cowboys are already pretty upset when one reads the label more closely. "This one's made in New York City."
"New York City!" they say in unison. A cowboy says: "Get a rope."

I remember seeing that commercial in New York City. Not limited to Texas airwaves. Don't remember what brand it was for, though... Maybe Pace.

Pace is the only nationally distributed sauce that I know is from Texas. And it's owned by Campbell's Soup now.

Campbell's Soup! Oh, no. Now they'll probably put twenty spoons of salt in each bottle.

Jack-In-The-Box
J-I-T-B was in the Philadelphia area, I do not know if in the actual city itself,about 15 -20 years? ago.

First, listening to the current commercial themes, j-i-t-box, was a kinder, gentler, entity, before. I think calling their fast food Philly cheese steaks is right up there with french toast, belgian waffles, french fires, hamburger...none of which have an association with the geographical name of the food.

My mother use to drive there with the younger children in the family to entertain them. At that time, it was a novelty to have not only chain,,,, fast food, but to also have a DrIVe-IN! Food was made in the home, except for pizza and hoagies and the topic:Cheese steaks.

What made ordering all that more special to the little ones, was that they placed their orders through the windows of the car to Mr Jack of In-The-Box....and he talked back to them, to ask questions! This was good for about 10 minutes of the gigles. No matter, that Mr. Jack sometimes had a waman's voice. The children were mesmerized, amused, and fed. Mom got off the hook for some time to herself.

No, you tell me they are using "cops"-like commercials? Hmm, maybe with that horse meat, the burgers are tougher, too?

The commercial like Cops was a rarity. They did not show it that often. Sometimes they have Jack with his beautiful wife and a child with a big round ball for a head like his, playing Little League or something.