How a random US brand became the household name Hungry Jack’s in Australia
WE KNOW it as a burger chain in Australia but in the US Hungry Jack’s is not the same thing at all. Mars bars and Milky Ways have also got lost in translation.
AS THEY try and persuade us, the burgers are better at Hungry Jack’s. But for the fast food chain’s ultimate owners, what would be even better is if their Australian offshoot could be called the same name as they use in every other country in the world.
Order a Whopper anywhere outside Australia and you’ll be standing in a Burger King, not a Hungry Jack’s. It’s the accidental household name.
“One would be justified in wondering why one of the largest franchise systems in the world, with one of the most recognisable brands in the world, is operating some 300 outlets under another name in Australia,” asked Andrew Terry and Heather Forrest in the essay, ‘Where‘s the Beef? Why Burger King is Hungry Jack’s in Australia.’
To Australian hamburger fans, it’s well known that Hungry Jack’s is simply Burger King with an Aussie twang.
But what is little known is that far from being a completely invented name, Hungry Jack’s also exists in the US — and there it’s something completely different.
Similar to the humble Mars bar, when you go stateside, something gets lost in translation and the product with the same name is not the same thing at all.
Hungry Jack’s debuted in 1971 when US chain Burger King expanded into Australia. The company teamed up with Jack Cowin, now one of the richest people in the country, to open its first stores as a franchise.
But much to the surprise of both Cowin and BK, an Adelaide restaurant was already called Burger King.
American born Don Dervan started his own chain under the same name because Burger King had never bothered to trademark the brand in Australia. The US company was barred from using its own name.
Similarly, Woolworths of America never trademarked its name down under meaning a once small Australian retailer was able to use the name instead. But we get distracted.
Unable to use the US name, Mr Cowin called his fast food shops Hungry Jack’s instead. But it wasn’t a completely random choice.
In fact, Hungry Jack’s had long been a favourite brand in the US. Just not for burgers.
“Operations thus commenced under the name Hungry Jack’s,” wrote Mr Terry and Ms Forrest. “A pancake mix brand owned in Australia by Pillsbury, the then-owner of the Burger King chain, was not inappropriate given that the principal of the company that acquired the Australian rights was a man named John James (”Jack”) Cowin.”
Strictly speaking, the US brand was the singular Hungry Jack which Cowin made possessive.
Hungry Jack — which also made syrup and biscuit (what we call scones) mixes — had a number of memorable adverting campaigns from the 1970s. In one a mum feeds her son scones in the morning explaining. “That’s my Hungry Jack. I bet you’ve got one too.”
To this day, in the US, Hungry Jacks syrups and mixes are still a supermarket staple.
The relationship between Burger King and its Australian operator was not always as sweet as the soft drinks they sell vast amounts of. During the late 1990s, there were around 80 Burger King outlets in Australia as the US parent tried to reclaim the territory and name, once the Adelaide trademark had expired.
Eventually, after much legal wrangling, Cowin prevailed but he chose to keep the unique Australian name.
“If someone can show us that changing the name to Burger King improves our image, then we’d have to consider it ... but to change it just in order to have uniformity with international markets does not deliver a local benefit,” Cowin was reported as saying.
Hungry Jack’s is not the only famous brand that changed during its journey over the Pacific.
Australia’s Mars bars are nothing like their America equivalent. US Mars bars were airy and fluffy and filled with almonds.
And they were ultimately unpopular. Despite being made by a company called Mars Inc, the US Mars bar went to the sweetshop in the sky in the 2000s.
Rather, Australian Mars bars are identical to the British Mars bars that was invented by the company’s American founder, Forrest Mars, in 1932. This, in turn, was modelled on the US Milky Way bar invented by his father in 1923.
This is, itself, different to the Australian Milky Way which is, again, identical to the UK version.
If you have a craving in the US for an Australian Milky Way you actually need to look for a chocolate bar called a ‘3 Musketeers’. This is made by Mars.
So, in summary, if on your American travels you fancy a Mars, grab a Milky Way; if you want a Milky Way; grab a 3 Musketeers; if you want some syrup grab Hungry Jack; and if you want a Hungry Jacks’ head to Burger King. We hope that clears things up for you.