Samhita linked to this campaign briefly last week, but we've got more to say about this.
That's right, folks. A reader alerted us to this craigslist ad casting call from Carl's Jr. and Hardee's burgers telling women that they could win $1,000 and a trip to Vegas if they submit a video of themselves eating one of their burgers and is "hot" enough for their marketing campaign.
Between Burger King's recent sick tactics and Carl's Jr. history of substituting women as meat in their ads, I don't think I'll be eating a burger for quite some time.
Carl's Jr.'s tagline is literally "More than just a piece of meat." So let's send them an email letting them know what that actually means to us. Or perhaps we can think of a good counter-campaign by sending them videos of what we really think of Carl's Jr. Any bright ideas?
UPDATE: It looks like the craigslist ad has been taken down. Woot! The contest, however, still exists.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Carl's Jr. seeks "Hot Chicks Eating Burgers" on craigslist .
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/14713
Carl's Jr and Burger King have to pull this kind of thing because their burgers SUCK! Luckily, we have Whataburger here in Texas and wouldn't you know it -none of this kind of stupidity in their ads!
Last year I drove to Virginia for my grandfather's funeral. We stopped and ate at Hardees (Carl's Jr east of Texas) and it was like a lard omelet. Everyone thought I couldn't eat for the next two days because I was so distraught over my grandfather when in fact it was that revolting lunch. I can handle a death in the family but I can't handle Hardees!
Not to derail the topic or anything, but their fried chicken is pretty good - in fact, better than KFC, Popeyes and Churches.
I agree about their burgers sucking, though. Too much build-up, no burger substance.
Best burgers are from In-N-Out.
I LOVE burgers, a lot. But the Hardee's/Carl Jr's burgers are just disgusting and so overloaded with fat.
Oh I don't know about Burger King. Even though I prefer Red Robins, Cheesecake Factory, and even this amazing burger shop called Zesty's near my house, I do like whoppers. It's my guilty cheap burger next to the Jumbo Jack.
Why does everything have to be taken so personal as an attack on women? I think it's a genius promo idea for a business. From a business perspective, it works. The only people who should be questioned here are the women who apply.
Why does everything have to be taken so personal as an attack on women?
1) Take a quick look at this site's URL. You will notice that it says "feministing.com". Perhaps the "feminist" part isn't enough of a cue, but this site is critical of how women are constructed in society. If you're not interested in reading commentary on the position of women in society and how we are "attacked" (your language!) perhaps you should go elsewhere, yes?
2) Who's taking it personally? The campaign is written about in generalities, in the context of other ad campaigns (which you would have seen if you'd bothered to read the actual text and click the links). Vanessa is definitely not talking about how she is personally being victimized by a burger campaign.
I think it's a genius promo idea for a business. From a business perspective, it works.
It may work in the context of a sexist society that values women largely for their bodies.
But from a feminist perspective (which, again, is the express focus of this site) it sucks.
The only people who should be questioned here are the women who apply.
Hello, victim-blaming! Women do what they need to do to get by in society. It's not the participant's fault that they are taught to com modify their body and value it for the sexiness it can imbue a hamburger with.
There are various perspectives of the "Feminist" POV, hence my comments. All your points were overlooked because of your tone. It's okay to agree to disagree, everything is not a fight.
How convenient to be able to choose to overlook someone's comments because of their perceived "tone". As if your comment didn't have any "tone" attached to it.
A great way to discuss Feminism is to make a statement, ignore any response you get and then get mad and refuse to engage because the other person is starting a fight!
You're kidding, right?
This comment has been deleted.
Hah! You're new here, aren't you?
Women who choose to send in videos of themselves eating hamburgers are "victims"?
I am totally down for a video-counter campaign. RALLY THE TROOPS!
Average Looking Guys Eat Chocolate Croissants?
I'm in if you're buying the croissant.
Holy crap. Sorry for the multiple comments. Computer failed. I'll make it up by writing a script for their ad. :D
People could submit photos of themselves holding signs / wearing t-shirts / etc. that say "More than just a piece of meat."
Then Feministing could submit them all to Carl's Jr.
I like that idea. I'll do it.
OMG that's such a good idea. I think they would be pissed.
Or "NOT just a piece of meat" might be better, as we shouldn't be implying that we're edible to begin with.
I can't produce the commercials, but here's the promised script. :)If anyone can produce this, I would love you forever!
1) (Young man, early 20’s sitting on in his car – looks at his burger and yawns) (5 seconds)
Jump
2) (Little boy sitting in the car next to him picking at his meal, makes a face and throws his meal away) (5 seconds)
SFX: “It tastes like …dog food.”
Jump
3) (Group of Soldier walks out of Carl’s Jr., open their meals and after one meal, make disgusting faces and throw them in the trash) (5 seconds)
SFX: (Soldier) “Man, I’d give anything for an MRE”
Jump
4) (Conventionally attractive woman walks into Carl’s Jr., as she struts and gives everyone “the eye.” Dance music in background) (5 Seconds)
Jump
5) (Soldiers look at one another, young man and little boys get out of their car and all rush inside the restaurant to the counter, yelling their orders)
Cut
6) Picture of a sad-looking burger, with a conventionally attractive woman in the background
SFX: “Carl’s Jr. – Selling Sells Because Our Burgers Don’t.”
Well that is certainly a more intelligent counter-ad than my thought which was women attacking (physical, baseball bat like) burgers. I really should ask myself why my thoughts immediately go to violence. It's not good. We actually don't have Carl's Jr. in Canada so I've never tasted their food but I have seen the ads both here and on current.com and they are revolting.
Perhaps they immediately go to violence because you are tired of and angry about the constant physical and psychic barrages of patriarchy. Perhaps you think of violence because in the face of the constant and overwhelming violence of systemic and individualized patriarchy and male-domination, violence resistance seems like the only way to make any headway.
Then again, I don't think beating up a small bit of a dead, chopped-up cow between two pieces of bread counts as violence.
I love this!
Ahhh, tag line should read "Selling Sexism ..."
Wow. I am wondering if Carl's Jr. and Hardee's are affiliated? I remember about 8 years ago (or so) Hardee's was putting out these commercials showing sexy women slurping on their burgers with gusto, chomping into them with such a sense of oral gratification that it made me blush (they even wiped a white sauce off their chins and sucked it off their fingers while looking bashful). I was particularly annoyed with one ad that involved a pregnant woman hoovering a burger in the waiting room of her doctor's office while all the other patients stared at her enviously. As if to say, "You're already fat, so who cares?" But what it really said to me was that pregnant women are not sexy AND that this woman is stupid enough to eat whatever she wants instead of considering the health of the baby as well as her own.
Recently I've noticed billboards for McDonald's with a picture of a Big Mac which proclaim: "Secret Love, Special Sauce, Mmmm, I'm lovin' it." Ewww!
They are the same company. East of Dallas, it's called Hardees; west of Dallas it's Carl's Jr.
I am sooo glad that Canada does not have Carl Jr. here. I find their marketing the most blatantly sexist. And they seem to have no regard whatsoever to their female clientele. This goes for a vast majority of beer commercials. What, do women not drink beer or eat burgers?
Most women don't seem to be overly bothered by the commercials.
My email:
"I have an idea for your next ad campaign. Take all the money you spend filming ads that objectify women and put it into developing a hamburger that actually tastes good. The only reason you have to resort to using naked women to sell your burgers is because your burgers aren't tasty enough to sell themselves."
I wrote an e-mail but haven't sent it yet.
I followed the link to the Craigslist ad and it looks like the ad has been taken down. Has anyone else come across this?
The idea of people wearing shirts/holding signs and taking pictures is a great way to do things because it's simple and pretty easy for a mass group to do.
Personally, if I had the abilities to do so, I'd hit them with the money punch. Something like showing two tables, one surrounded by men eating burgers and the other by women getting up and leaving with a TV between them showing one of their super sexist ads. Then a picture below that with all the same themes, except the ad isn't sexist, and both tables are full of men and women eating.
It's like saying, "Look, increase your profits by not pissing off 50% of your consumer base."
I'll be quite happy to send in a video of me violently vomiting the semi-digested remains of a burger, or waiting until it is fully digested and taking a picture of it bobbing in the toilet bowl.
At least it portrays women who aren't afraid to eat as sexy.
But the women who are "hot enough" for their campaign probably do not look like they eat fast food regularly.
Also the women aren't sexy as in "Goodness, I enjoy my sexuality and value my own pleasure as you can plainly see here." They are sexy as in, "Hey, look at me! I exist to titillate your male gaze. Why, even my eating is not an act of self-loving nourishment; it is a performance calculated to elicit a classically conditioned response to this inferior foodstuff."
It insults men and women.
Fair enough--that is very true.
You have a good point there, and now that I think about it further, Peepers is right about the male gaze issue. I apologize.
It's generally only considered sexy for a woman to eat a big meal if she is super skinny and traditionally attractive. In other words: sexually appealing.
Or at least, that's the line of thinking for these douche bags.
I hate that teenage-boy marketing fantasy of "Look, it's a hot chick doing what we do! She must be way cooler than other chicks, who are uptight bitches!" Most female gamers don't look like Megan Fox. Most women who mow down on burgers do not look like video vixens. Most women who are COOL enough to not eat salads all the time and TOTALLY BOTHER their long-suffering boyfriends with calorie counting either are lucky enough to be born with a metabolism and shape that the mainstream currently finds attractive, or don't look like the type of woman who would be cast in a commercial. I am so sick of this bullshit I might just go to bed now.
Very true. Most women regardless whether they indulge in fast food or gamers don't look like vixens either which is why I hate these things. Women who eat burgers or women who eat salads aren't all mega hotties. They're beautiful in their own way. Why do we need to make women into fantasies and not see the beauty they all have?
Yeah, why are commercials so hyperstylized and insincere? It's like they have some kind of *agenda.*
Someone should send in the video of David Hasselhoff drunk and eating a hamburger.
If you want to email the ALL MALE management team of CKE Restaurants (which owns Carls Jr and Hardee's), head on over here:
http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=tabContent&htmlKey=actcarlsjr&s=amplify
I think it was perfect product placement to put Carl's Jr. in the movie Idocracy. "Carls' Jr. Fuck you, I'm eating!" That quote just defines this company, especially the "fuck you" part.