Jay Bush and Duke is a series of advertisements for Bush's Baked Beans and occasionally spinoff products such as Bush's Grillin' Beans. The commercials mainly follow a typical format: Jay Bush introduces himself and his talking golden retriever Duke for Bush's Baked Beans, then calls for the director to "Roll that beautiful bean footage!" As the footage is played, he explains that the beans are slow-roasted with the secret family recipe to lock in the flavor. He finishes by stating that he's only shared the secret family recipe with Duke, but that he'd never tell. At this point, the audience is let in on Duke's latest scheme to sell off the family recipe for his own profit.
These advertisements tended to vary somewhat on whether Jay had any idea of Duke's activities to sell off the family recipe. While many depicted him as being completely clueless, others showed him as being well aware of Duke's activities and taking measures to prevent them. Due to the popularity of the campaign, some ads even ditch the format entirely and simply used the two as more general mascot characters. The campaign was hugely successful, resulting in a huge uptick in sales of the product and Bush's becoming the market-leader in the category.
Jay Bush is a great-grandson of company founder A.J. Bush and has appeared as himself in all ads. Meanwhile, Duke, naturally, due to the long-running nature of the campaign (1995-ongoing) as well as the demands of filming has been portrayed by a number of different golden retriever dogs. This, however did not stop there from being a kerfuffle on social media when it was reported that one of the dogs had died, fans apparently not realizing that several past "Dukes" had already passed away. The voice of Duke is Robert Cait. "Duke" was based on Jay Bush's actual golden retriever family dog, however, the actual Duke was camera-shy and thus never actually appeared in any of the ads.
Although the commercial campaign is not as active as it once was, new ads are still occasionally made such as one
featuring former NFL quarter Peyton Manning seen in 2023. Bush's maintains an official webpage for Duke and also for a time maintained an Instagram page. A Licensed Game called Bush's Bean Dash was even available for a time on Android, but has been discontinued. A tie-in children's book, Duke's Tails: Duke Finds a Home (ostensibly by Duke himself) was also released in 2006.
The Jay Bush and Duke ads feature examples of the following:
- Auction: One of Duke's schemes to sell off the secret family recipe was an auction in a barn with Duke himself as the auctioneer.
- Bedsheet Ghost: In one of the ads, Duke tries to con Jay as being the bedsheet ghost of his grandfather, but is given away by the tail sticking out from the bedsheet.
- Bigger on the Inside: Duke has what appears to be fairly typical doghouse that would be just enough for him to lie down for a nap in or take shelter from rain. However, one of the ads depicts him as having a harem inside being pampered on a cushion by a group of poodles and with a golden fire hydrant in the background. Another shows him having a secret printing press in the basement.
- Blackmail: In one of the ads, Jay states that Duke has made certain requests in order to keep the recipe a secret. It is then revealed that Duke has a secret harem inside his doghouse. Jay asks him if there will be anything else and he tells him that some privacy and a couple of steaks would be nice.
- Crop Circles: In one ad, Jay Bush and Duke are walking through a cornfield. Jay gives his usual spiel about the secret family recipe and how he's only shared it with Duke, but Duke would never tell. They then come upon a crop circle. "You don't think... UFOs?" wonders Jay as the camera zooms out to reveal that the "crop circles" actually form the message "SECRET FAMILY RECIPE FOR SALE CONTACT DUKE". "Yeah. That's it. UFOs," agrees Duke.
- Cue the Flying Pigs: One ad has Duke asking Jay if he'll ever let him sell the secret family recipe, to which Jay replies "Sure, when pigs fly." This is followed by a Gilligan Cut to Duke with a pig on the roof of the house, an improvised set of wings strapped to its back. "Now, just buzz around the house a couple of times and that should do it," Duke tells it.
- Deadpan Snarker: Duke's default attitude in response to Jay's statements, such as one in which people are honking because of a message that he posted stating "Honk if you want the secret family recipe" and Jay says that they're friendly for honking like this.Duke: Yeah. Friendly.
- Description Cut: Some of the ads use this, with Jay saying that Duke would never tell the recipe and then cutting away to Duke's latest scheme to do exactly this. Some, however, don't even bother with the cut, with Duke's activities instead being more or less out in the open, but Jay being oblivious.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The earliest advertisement or two had only Jay and not Duke - Duke was added because the company wanted a light, humorous tones to the ads and Jay suggested that it would help him to be funnier if there was a dog with him.
- Forced Transformation: In one ad, Jay Bush introduces his "chili changer" remote control device which changes bland meals into bowls of Bush's chili. He then briefly uses it on Duke, changing him into a chili dog before changing him back.Duke: Chili dog. Funny, Jay.
- Fourth Wall Greeting: Jay Bush would introduce himself and Duke to the viewers, narrate the "beautiful bean footage" and then state that he's only shared the secret family recipe with Duke, but that he'd never tell.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Jay Bush often refers to Duke as being trustworthy or someone who would never tell the secret recipe, despite the many instances the audience is shown to the contrary.
- Last-Second Word Swap: In one ad, Jay completes his speech about the secret family recipe and having only shared it with Duke, only to find instead of Duke a Boston terrier dog in front of him instead. He asks the dog where Duke is and it tilts its head to reveal Duke with a crowd of people. He goes over just as Duke is telling the crowd "And the secret family recipe is..." Seeing Jay, Duke finishes with "...not for sale."
- Paper-Thin Disguise: In one of the advertisements, Duke poses as a food researcher, head of the "Tailgate Research Institute," but is just himself wearing a labcoat, glasses and fake mustache.
- Put a Face on the Company: The idea of the campaign as originally conceived was to put a recognizable face on the company by hiring a descendant of the original founder as a spokesperson for the company. Putting a dog in the ads came afterward, but the basic idea succeeded in making both Jay Bush and Duke recognizable as the "face," such that some later ads even used them without the central gimmick of Duke trying to sell off the secret family recipe.
- Sarcastic Confession: One ad involves Duke printing a bunch of flyers in a secret basement in his doghouse which read "Bush's Secret Family Recipe for Sale." When Jay confronts him with one of the flyers, asking if he had anything to do with it, he replies sarcastically with "Right, Jay, I'm running a printing press in my basement."
- Super Multi-Purpose Room: In one of the ads, Duke is sitting inside Jay's home with a room full of blueprints and a monitor for his latest scheme to sell off the secret family recipe. He receives a "Jay Alert" on the monitor and pushes a button which instantly retracts his setup, transforming the room into Jay's living room with couches and a fireplace. Jay enters, none the wiser, and gives him a head rub and a chin scratch.
- Talking Animal: Duke as Jay's talking dog. In many of the ads, Jay is aware of this fact, but still seems to think that Duke wouldn't spill the beans on the secret family recipe. One of the earliest, however, depicts Jay as being shocked when Duke utters the phrase "Roll that beautiful bean footage."
- Zany Scheme: Duke's schemes for selling off the secret family recipe range from the mundane, such as simply printing advertising flyers (albeit using a secret printing press in his basement) to the zany: spelling out a contact message in crop circles or getting bees to spell out this message in the air.
