Richard "Rick" Sittig is an ad executive, actor, director, producer, writer, singer, and comedian. He was the creator and original voice of Jack Box, a reimagined version of Jack in the Box's former mascot Jack.
Early life[]
Sittig was born Richard Sittig. He was raised in a small town in Illinois.[1]
He studied economics and finance at USC, where he took a class in marketing and fell in love with the process.[2]
Career[]
Sittig began his advertising career by offering his services for free to a small agency.[1]
Later, as an associate creative director at Della Femina, Travisano & Partners, Sittig was one of the creators of the Joe Isuzu campaign, which was awarded a first-prize Gold Lion at the International Advertising Film Festival in 1987.[3][4] At DDB Chicago, Sittig helped create the Energizer Bunny campaign, which was inducted into the Clio Hall of Fame.[1] He was later hired by Chait / Day (now TBWA\Chiat\Day), where he quickly rose through the ranks to become executive director.[1]
While at Chiat / Day, he proposed the Jack campaign for Jack in the Box, which had yet to recover from fallout over the 1993 E. coli outbreak. "I thought it would be fun and instead of just making [Jack] a clown you order through, to bring him back as the company founder and to treat him as you would treat any other company founder on TV, whether it's Lee Iacocca or Bill Gates," he told an interviewer in 1997.[5] He directed the first commercial in the campaign, Jack's Back, and would go on to direct every subsequent commercial in the series for the next two decades. The campaign has since become the longest running fast food commercial campaign with over 400 commercials at an average of 22 per year.
Considered the "gatekeeper" of the character, Sittig has been called "the font of Jack's continuity" and was given a lot of autonomy from Jack in the Box.[6] He also voiced Jack, although he would occasionally refuse to confirm this in interviews.[1][7] According to The Honolulu Advertiser, he "refuses to have his picture run with articles in which he is identified as Jack's voice, saying he does not want to dilute Jack's image."[5]
After the Jack in the Box contract ended at Chiat/Day in 1997,[8] Sittig founded his own agency, Kowloon Wholesale Seafood Co. (later renamed Secret Weapon Marketing), and continued working with Jack in the Box, which was initially the agency's sole client.[9]
Jack in the Box and Secret Weapon Marketing ended their business relationship in August 2015.[10] In a letter to "Jack" posted on Facebook, Sittig said, "it was a great ride together."[11]
In September 2024, Sittig announced the closure of Secret Weapon Marketing in a letter addressed to the advertising industry:
Dear Advertising,
You’ve been great. Really. Our 41-year relationship has been amazing. You’ve taken me on incredible adventures I could not have imagined growing up in small-town Illinois... Driving thru the Amazon rainforest in the first Nissan Pathfinder... Writing, directing and voicing Jack Box and filming him at the Vatican... Watching David Letterman smack the Energizer Bunny with a baseball bat... Surprising real people with simple and sometimes life-changing gifts courtesy of the Helpful Honda dealers. Watching God lose at tennis.
Thank you Advertising for introducing me to so many talented, conscientious, smart people. That list is too long to thank everyone but they know who they are. There are however, three people, Lee Clow, Patrick Adams and Frank Scherma, that I am especially grateful for.
Look, Advertising, I have to be honest with you. It’s obvious we’ve grown apart. We used to be crazy fans of big ideas like Dos Equis’ The Most Interesting Man in the World and Bud Light’s Real Men of Genius and Apple’s Mac vs PC and Got Milk? But lately, I’ve noticed your obsession with data and analytics, and I’m sad to say, Advertising, you’ve gotten dull. We’re not a good match anymore. I’m breaking up with you.
I’ll be closing the doors of Secret Weapon Sept. 15. I am so proud of 93% of the work we produced since we opened 27 years ago. Thank you to all the alums, clients and crew who made it happen and made it fun.[12]
Personal life[]
Sittig went by the nickname "Dick" for decades until he switched to Rick after an encounter with Meat Loaf.[13]
According to a random person on the Internet, he is "surprisingly a hardcore righty / libertarian and gives out small gold bars to his employees at the Xmas parties."[14]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Dick Sittig: Out of the Box. Directors Guild of America. 2007.
- ↑ Schmelzer, Randi. Dick Sittig On The Spot. Adweek. January 10, 2005.
- ↑ Horovitz, Bruce. Isuzu's Ads Are Hot but Its Sales Are Not. Los Angeles Times. August 4, 1987.
- ↑ Rothenberg, Randall. THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Advertising's Youth Brigade Flouts Tradition. New York Times. April 11, 1988.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Wiles, Greg. "Jack's flack cooks up bits of philosophy on TV ads." The Honolulu Advertiser. October 9, 1997.
- ↑ Solman, Gregory. Dick Sittig, in Situ. Adweek. September 1, 2008.
- ↑ Semuels, Alana. This advertising shop knows Jack. Los Angeles Times. February 7, 2008.
- ↑ Gellene, Denise. Going It Alone. Los Angeles Times. March 27, 1997.
- ↑ Dawson, Angela. Kowloon's Seafood Platter. Adweek. August 10, 1998.
- ↑ Coffee, Patrick. Rick Sittig Says Goodbye to Jack in the Box. AgencySpy. August 24, 2015.
- ↑ Facebook post. August 19, 2015.
- ↑ Bonilla, Brian. "Secret Weapon Marketing to close after 27 years." Ad Age. September 11, 2024.
- ↑ Secret Weapon Marketing - Rick Sittig.
- ↑ Reddit.