Chipotle dropped the gauntlet with its promise of more local, sustainable sources. McDonald's has tried to become more transparent about its farm-to-fork supply chain (especially in Canada and Australia). Also in Canada, an independent A&W promises "hormone-free" beef and chicken raised without antibiotics.
Now American chain Carl's Jr. (whose gratuitously sexed-up ads frequently feature here) is doing something really smart: They're offering their customers a choice.
According to Burger Business, Carl’s Jr. is ready to introduce the first “all-natural, no hormones, no antibiotics, no steroids, grass-fed, free-range beef patty” from any major quick-service (fast food) chain in the United States.
But they're not replacing their ordinary beef burgers, just offering the more natural beef as an upgrade:
“We’ve seen a growing demand for ‘cleaner,’ more natural food, particularly among Millennials, and we’re proud to be the first major fast-food chain to offer an all-natural beef patty burger on our menu. Millennials include our target of ‘Young Hungry Guys’ and they are much more concerned about what goes into their bodies than previous generations,” Brad Haley, chief marketing officer for Carl’s Jr., said in a statement announcing the new burger. “Whether you’re into more natural foods or not, it’s simply a damn good burger.”
Great news for people concerned about where their meat comes from, and how the animal lived. Now it's up to the restaurant's regulars to put their money where their mouths are.
Can you spot the differences between this ad, starring reality TV "daredevil" Bryan Spangler, and the burger chain's more typical ads?
Hint: He's fully dressed. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Does Mr. Spangler present himself to the viewer as a sexual object? Not really. He looks skeptically at he burger, eats it, then reclines manfully on his car as if he's getting a BJ.
While exploiting women's sexuality to sell fast food is nothing new for Carl's Jr./Hardee's, there are some things else worth mentioning in this one:
That's 2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model Nina Agdal and her Charbroiled Atlantic Cod Fish Sandwich.
Atlantic cod is a problematic fish. Once a staple of northern Atlantic nations, the cod population has collapsed on the North American side. The European population, with the exception of "the northeast Arctic, Iceland, Baltic and Celtic Sea" is considered overfished. Fortunately, this source quotes Hardee's (CJ's eastern counterpart) saying that their fish "comes from 100 percent sustainable fisheries in the Icelandic Exclusive Economic Zone."
That's a relief. But there's another interesting backstory to this promotion. Apparently, the reason you see so many fish burgers promoted in the late winter is because of Lent. From Ash Wednesday to Easter Eve, many pious Christians (especially Catholics) symbolically fast by giving up meat and other rich foods. Fish, which was not considered "meat" in the Middle Ages, became the go-to protein during this several-week abstinence.
Think this is an obscure motivation for a fast food marketing program? Here's a Time Magazine article from last year:
McDonald’s isn’t the only quick-serve chain that’s chosen the early part of the calendar year to launch a big fish initiative. This week, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s introduced the Charbroiled Atlantic Cod Fish Sandwich at all locations around the country. The company announced the new sandwich was aimed directly at consumers tweaking their diets during Lent, and also folks concerned about eating more healthfully in the new year:
“For almost half-a-century, whenever fast food customers wanted to get a fish sandwich during Lent, they had one choice: fried,” said Brad Haley, chief marketing officer for Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. “With our new Charbroiled Atlantic Cod Fish Sandwich, we’ve changed all that. For the first time in the industry, our guests can get a premium-quality fish sandwich that tastes great and is lower in calories because we charbroil it just like we do our burgers.”
Piety, abstinence, sexual voyeurism, and dieting. It all makes sense together. At least, in the United States it does.
The ad features Fernanda Romero posing provocatively for the camera, showing off cleavage, and fellating a sausage. You've been warned.
Someone claiming to be Ms. Romero took to Reddit yesterday, saying:
Howdy Howdy! I am Fernanda Romero, an actress (recent films include Ghost Team One and Mission Park). I just appeared in a Carls Jr ad that sadly didn't air on the Superbowl.
"Sadly"? The video was roundly panned by Redditors, who suspected a Carl's Jr. PR stunt. According to Perez Hilton, however, Carl's Jr. has stated, "They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But, we had nothing to do with this spoof ad."
It's definitely high budget, and is pretty close to what they've already done:
Whether it's gonzo marketing for burgers, or someone else's bid for fame, I'm sure it will play out pretty soon. Not that this is great for women in media either way.
This ad, starring Katherine Webb (Miss Alabama USA 2012) is just the latest in a long line of ads from Hardee's/Carl's Jr. that take the comparison of food to sex to silly extremes. In the one above, Ms. Webb follows in the footsteps of Kate Upton as she basically simulates sex with processed meat on a bun.
But what kind of sex, exactly, is it supposed to be? And how is this ad formula actually selling burgers?
No, I'm serious. What human organ is the burger standing in for? "Burger" has long been a slang term for the vulva, indicating that these ads are borrowing interest from lesbian fetish porn created for straight men.
And why is this appealing? Because it's the ultimate objectified female sexual performance for the male gaze.
The real reason why the idea of lesbianism so fascinates many straight men is one that is easier to understand if one is. Having some philosophical awareness also helps. For the real reason is closely connected with the phenomenology of sexual fantasy, which works via virtual identification. In other words: it is about imagining yourself into the position of one of the sexual partners. In the case of lesbianism, a straight man seeks to imagine himself into the position of one of the partners, desiring the other woman of the pair – and then can immediately switch into the second woman’s subject position, desiring the first. (This back and forth virtual-switching of identification is especially delicious because of course it tacitly involves the illicit thrill of being a woman, at the level of imagination, as well as desiring one.) It works especially for the male fantasist when both the women in question are ‘desirable’ (e.g. porn models, or ‘lipstick lesbians’) and/or when the limbs etc. of the participants are so entwined that it is slightly hard to tell who is who. A man may get very over-excited by rapidly – ‘deliriously’ – switching subject-positions in his imagination, and work himself up in a way that doesn’t have a direct parallel in situations of heterosexual desire.
Not sure I totally agree with all of that (the stereotype I hear is the expectation that they're just getting warmed up for a FMF threesome starring the viewer) but it does raise some interesting thoughts about the ads. What, exactly, are we men supposed to fantasize about that will result in wanting to eat that hamburger? Cunnilingus?
While not every man may not be as big a fan of the act as Michael Douglas, this seems like a logical explanation of what desires are being compared here.
But then you have to take this kind of thing into account:
Waitaminute. The burger is a penis now? This infamous Singaporean Burger King ad seems to invite an image for men of being on the receiving end. But how is that supposed to excite a straight man about putting one in his mouth?
To make all the sexualized burger marketing even more confusing, Hardee's/Carl's Jr. is apparently test marketing a "footlong cheeseburger":
1) This hamburger is part of a hot threesome that you are about to get involved in by pretending to be going down on one of the women when you eat this hamburger, and
2) This hamburger is a really big penis that you want to put in your mouth.
Or maybe it's this:
3) This hamburger ad is an excuse to make you feel powerful by watching women perform sexually for you, and (by the way) you can eat a burger as big as you wish your penis was.
(I'm being facetious in the post. What's really happening isn't product marketing, it's branding with new product info along for the ride. Turning people on has been proven to create positive brand associations and to impair judgement.)
Ignore the fact that Epic Meal Time is based in Montreal, far out of Hardee's territory. This is the internet age. Their social media cred is well established in the USA.
“The Super Bacon Cheeseburger is a truly epic creation that celebrates all that is glorious about bacon,” said Brad Haley, chief marketing officer of CKE Restaurants. “Who better to help us advertise it than the stars of Epic Meal Time, Harley and Muscles Glasses, whose love for bacon is so extreme that it, at times, borders on inappropriate? Our target audience of young, hungry guys spends a lot of time watching videos on YouTube, and the Epic Meal Time channel is a favorite. In the new spot, fans of Epic Meal Time will even recognize Muscles Glasses’ trademark t-shirt with ‘Bacon Strips &’ repeated several times on the front. The spot does a perfect job getting across our message that the Super Bacon Cheeseburger has a lot of bacon on it or, as the ad states, ‘bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon.’”
The pieces were all in place for an awesomely viral campaign. Except somehow, they screwed it up.
Watch:
The amusingly censored profanity is there, but the ad completely lacks the manic delivery that Epic Meal Time consistently serves up. The agency, 72andSunny, couldn't help but be slaves to the conventions of fast food advertising: burger beauty shots and awkward fake eating. The result is an underwhelming campaign that diminishes both brands:
It could be the client's fault. But why would a company that has no problem using raunchy sex kittens to sell its product be so conservative when it comes to showing men? Why didn't they let Harley and Muscles Glasses create some kind of epic feast using the Super Bacon Cheeseburger as the key ingredient? The potential for something great was within reach, and yet everyone involved failed to grasp it:
Just goes to show that there is no substitute for authenticity.
Apparently the point of this ad is that you're supposed to be focussed on model, horrible writer, and vaccine-denier Jenny McCarthy's ample cleavage in this ad:
I don't know about you, but I was more distracted by how completely off-the-rails annoying this woman is.
There's a making-of video as well:
Don't you love it when 72andSunny CD Mick DiMaria gushes about how Ms. McCarthy is "still... amazingly beautiful" at 40? (I guess women are supposed to look not-beautiful at that age?)
Burger Business reports, "Last time Carl’s Jr. promoted salads its aim was to attract a broader audience than its traditional 'young, hungry guys' customer base. No doubt that’s the hope again. In a tight, low-growth market, every customer counts."
Good luck widening your demographic with this stuff, guys.
(In case you're unaware, "Women laughing alone with salad" is a thing in stock photography.)
You've got to hand it to Carl's Jr./Hardee's — they just won't give up using sex to sell their burgers, no matter what gets in their way.
In New Zealand, according to the National Business Review, the barrier was a broadcast TV ban on their "BBQ's Best Pair" ad by the Commercial Approvals Bureau for using "sexual appeal in an exploitative and degrading manner" and "using sex to sell an unrelated product". (Makes one wonder how many consumer ads from the Americas, Australia, or Asia get approved there.)
Rather than give up the brand's international creative, national owner Restaurant Brands just hired an American actor to supply a play-by-play description of the banned video. It ends up being, thanks to the imagination, even dirtier:
Sticking it to advertising regulators probably scored the brand lots of points with their target market, who they describe as "young hungry guys.”
The radio version was done by NZ's Special Group. Creative Director Tony Bradbourne boasts, “it’s just great humour which is on tone and on brand for our audience.”
I guess we'll see what fallout — if any — happens next over this public baiting of the regulator (and New Zealand women). But at least they were creative about it.
We all know that food advertising uses all kinds of fakery to make the product look as appealing and we're supposed to imagine it. But Heidi Klum's fake bite and chew in the new Hardee's/Carl's Jr. ad is a little unsettling.
Was she even in the same room as the burger? Did she use a stunt mouth? The Jim Beam Bourbon Thickburger, by the way, packs 870 calories and 45 grams of fat.
I don't think I've seen a bite that weird since V:
The sex-themed burger ad is the latest in a series, although this one is less cheesecake and more goofy parody. (Of The Graduate, in case you are culturally impoverished.)
Last week, I saw an interesting post on Burger Business, a fast food industry blog about how the word "premium" has become a popular adjective for burger chains:
According to data compiled for BurgerBusiness.com by Mintel, its use on menus has doubled since 2007 (and this is even before Burger King’s new items), and not just at quick-service restaurants. In an economy where consumers are looking for top value without necessarily paying more for it, “premium” connotes high quality or high price without committing to being either. “Premium” sounds upscale, special, with a sophistication that “deluxe” lacks.
McDonald's "premium" line (from their online menu)
But what exactly does "premium" mean, in the realm of junk food?
The Oxford American English Dictionary defines the adjective as "relating to or denoting a commodity or product of superior quality and therefore a higher price."
The problem, of course, is that "premium" is not part of the USDA's grading standard. It's an entirely relative term. If the fast food chains are being honest, it could imply that the meat is better than what they were giving you before.
But this is marketing. What they really want to imply is "better than the other guy's."
KFC Canada: "The premium chicken breast is marinated in our hot & spicy seasoning
for full flavor, then double breaded by hand for extra crunch."
It's total bullshit, of course. The word is absolutely meaningless in any real sense of food quality. But as a marketing term, it works. Hard.
Speaking at last week’s 2012 Protein Innovation Summit hosted by Meatingplace magazine, Technomic Executive Vice President Darren Tristano presented data on consumer attitudes to beef quality (not just burgers). According to Technomic’s 2011 Center of the Plate Beef & Pork Consumer Trend Report, 28% of diners say the amorphous descriptor “premium” would make them more willing to pay up to 5% more for beef at a restaurant or supermarket. Another 11% say that seeing that word would make them willing to pay more than 5% more.
Technomic’s findings come as many of the growing “better burger” chains strive to set themselves apart by promoting the high quality of the beef they use. Elevation Burger, for example, touts its use of “100% organic, grass-fed, free-range beef.” The Cheeburger Cheeburger chain adopted all-natural, additive-free Angus beef. Farm Burger in the Atlanta area proudly serves grass-fed beef free of antibiotics and hormones. These terms signal quality, certainly, but consumers like “premium” even better.
There's even a chart:
Source: Technomic Center of the Plate Beef & Pork Consumer Trend Report
Note that the three descriptors below "premium" are specific and falsifiable. But people are much more likely to pay "slightly more" (and almost as likely to pay ("significantly more") for an adjective that costs the fast food chains absolutely nothing.
Here's how those same consumers describe their expectations of what "premium" beef implies:
Note that the top two responses have nothing to do with the way the meat was raised or processed, but only the cut and breed. Specifics about hormones and antibiotics don't even make the chart.
If the chains were to move towards hormone- and antibiotic-free meats, they'd greatly increase their costs. If you were them, after attending this "Protein Innovation Summit," which way would you go? (Burger business recommends "premium, 100% Angus sirloin."
Pulled pork on a hamburger is kind of a thing now, according to Burger Business. So it's no surprise that fast food chains are hopping on the bandwagon.
The best-known of the offerings right now is Hardee's/Carl's Jr., mostly because they advertise their products like this:
Slightly higher, in Canada, our homegrown national burger chain, Harvey's, is just... well...
Okay, they may be naively featuring the actual food as the star rather than gratuitous T&A. But this is Canada. We have our own ways of making people drool...
Yeah, that's right. We poutinized the mofo. Take THAT, America!
If there's one thing those determined 18th-Century patriots were willing to die for, it's your God-given right to celebrate liberty by dressing up like a superhero (a sexy superhero, if you're female), walking proudly into your local fast food outlet, and in a mighty voice demanding your free hamburger.
For the past few years, Hardee's/Carl's Jr. has been unabashed in its use of commodified female sexuality to sell fast food. Nowhere was it as cynical as in last year's "Just the way it is" ad:
Carl’s Jr. same-store sales were up 2.6% for the quarter, compared with +2.1% for the year-earlier quarter. Hardee’s also posted a 2.6% gain in comp sales despite a difficult comparison with last year’s 9.6% increase. Adjusted EBITDA margin for company-operated restaurants rose to 19.3% from 17% a year ago.
Consumers vote for the kinds of brands they want with their hard-earned purchasing dollars. Want more respectful advertising? Stop making purchasing decisions with your gonads.
Sex in food advertising is the oldest trick in the book. The problem is, as people get used to more and more explicit ads, it takes more and more "heat" to break through. Which means you can expect to see the models actually having intercourse with the food in about three years.
