Tel-Chai Nation

A burger business in the USA is doing the right thing (via the Daily Caller):

Carl’s Jr. has updated its old sexualized marketing strategy with an ad starring influencer Alix Earle, years after the burger chain stopped making suggestive ads and promised to focus more on its food.

Earle wears little clothing as she promotes a bulging new “hangover burger” in the Super Bowl-themed ad, reprising the role once played in Carl’s Jr. campaigns by such names as Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian—but now with some self-referential humor from a TikTok star tossed in.

The new twist on the brand’s once-signature style mirrors a cultural about-face that coincides with President Trump’s return to office, according to Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing and associate chair of the marketing department at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

“I think it does reflect a shift in how the country is feeling,” said Calkins. “Clearly with the new administration … what is acceptable conduct is changing, and I think you’re seeing Carl’s Jr. jump right on that trend as one of the first brands that’s really pushing the edge on things like this.”

This ad almost certainly wouldn’t have run several years ago, when American culture focused more intently on matters of gender equality and diversity, Calkins said.

The new campaign is intended to evoke nostalgia for its predecessors while adding humor to target a core audience of Gen Z consumers who live—and order hamburgers—online, said Jennifer Tate, chief marketing officer at Carl’s Jr. parent company CKE Restaurants, which also owns the restaurant chain Hardee’s.

A carwash featured early in the video, for example, is a subtle nod to a 2005 Paris Hilton commercial in the original wave of ads.

Earle’s appeal lies in her ability to feature both the highlights and foibles of her life online, Tate said, referring to the influencer’s “unapologetic, bold style.”

“This is the new world with new rules and new rulers. Alix Earle is a social media empress,” Tate said in a statement. “Carl’s Jr. is having so much fun doing things other brands are too timid to do.”

‘Bikinis and burgers’

Carl’s Jr. began its shift away from its racy ads in 2017, saying the strategy was distracting from the chain’s food.

“Since premiering our now iconic ad starring Paris Hilton 12 years ago, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s have become synonymous with two things: bikinis and burgers,” said Brad Haley, then the CMO at CKE Restaurants, in a press release that year. That made it difficult to tell a broader story about menu quality, Haley said.

Even before that, Carl’s Jr. had defended its steamy ads in a defiant 2011 press release that has since been removed from CKE Restaurants’ web site.

“We believe in putting hot models in our commercials, because ugly ones don’t sell burgers,” the release read, according to a copy archived online. “That’s just the way it is.”

For the second year in a row, Carl’s Jr. is promoting its loyalty program by offering free burgers to members the day after the Super Bowl. The company will gauge this campaign’s success by monitoring sign-ups and online sales, as well as bricks-and-mortar foot traffic, Tate said.

Like past campaigns tied to the Super Bowl, this one also aims to attract an outsize share of attention—but without costing the company the millions of dollars in media fees that an actual national Super Bowl commercial would cost. The ad will run on traditional and streaming TV only in some markets, and not in-game, said Tate.

The campaign will also lean heavily on social media, Tate said. Earle shared the ad with her 7.2 million TikTok followers on Wednesday.

The brand will release more material with Earle later this year, Tate said.

Well I'm glad they're reversing that previous, hysterical capitulation to wokeness, which was cowardice, and even here, any leftists who did similar things only ended up doing what ultra-Orthodox extremists would want, just as much as the LGBT cultists. The only drawback for me when it comes to the food served at Carl's Jr. is that I want kosher ingredients. But until that can be resolved, the sight of the women is definitely worth the price of admission for now.

Labels: communications, lgbt cultism, misogyny, Moonbattery, showbiz, United States