Comparing Sex Appeal In Carl. S Jr. And Hardee's Advertising Campaign

Sex appeal has been a part of advertising since the late 1800s. From Calvin Klein jeans to Maybelline mascara, these commercials emphasize how “beautiful” or “sexy” one will look using their products by including celebrities or models that are already very attractive. These ads also tend to objectify the person in them, especially if that person is a woman. For this reason, many feminists have called ads like these sexist, and it is easy to see where they are coming from. However, with beauty products or clothes, sex appeal is generally expected. But would one expect sex appeal to appear in an ad for fast food? With all the high calorie contents and the potential greasy mess, can eating fast food really be sexy? Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s ad campaign

The voiceover states that the combination of a cheeseburger, hot dog, and potato chips makes the burger incredibly American. It emphasizes how American the burger is by zooming out to reveal a gorgeous model holding it and eating a potato chip. The camera zooms out again to reveal she is sitting in a hot tub and wearing a red, white, and blue, star-spangled bikini. Then, it is revealed the hot tub is in the bed of a similarly American colored pickup truck, driven by who the voiceover calls “an American bull rider.” Another zoom out shows the truck is parked on a large aircraft carrier, followed by another zoom out with New York City in the background and the Statue of Liberty in the foreground. As this is shown, fireworks go off and five jets fly by trailing red, white, and blue smoke behind them. Finally, we zoom back in to the model as she seductively takes a bite out of what the commercial dubs, “The Most American

and Hardee’s Most American Thickburger commercial, and Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s commercials in general, are so persuasive because they make brilliant use of sex appeal. Almost every ad of theirs since the infamous Paris Hilton ad from 2005 has included a beautiful woman doing sexy things and eating their products in seductive ways. Also, like every fast food commercial, the burger is decorated perfectly to make it seem more appealing than it is in real life. This effect is more enhanced by a gorgeous supermodel eating the delicious looking Thickburger. Unique to this Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s ad is the amounts of hyperbolic patriotism. Saying it was “The Most American Thickburger” was not enough; everything in the ad is decorated with the colors of the American flag and takes place in one of the United States’s most iconic cities. The burger even came out a month before Independance Day, so the advertisers clearly wanted to appeal to patriotic people excited to celebrate their country; specifically patriotic men. Why else would there be a scantily clad lady in it? Simple: sex