Make America Hot Again.
Carl’s Jr., which ditched its sexualized commercials eight years ago, is bringing back its bikini-and-burgers formula for the Super Bowl.
TikTok influencer Alix Earle stars in a new commercial from Carl’s Jr. promoting its new “hangover burger” for football fans needing a pick-me-up after game day.
“Just what you need to cure that post party bug,” Earle says, dressed in a skimpy outfit as she parades through a car wash and takes a bite of the super-loaded breakfast burger.
Ads starring writhing models including Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian were once a staple of the fast food franchise. It even put out a press release in 2011 that said, “We believe in putting hot models in our commercials, because ugly ones don’t sell burgers.”
But in 2017, the chain ditched the ads, claiming it wanted to tell the “broader story” of its offerings.
Andrew Puzder, former CKE Restaurants chief executive, had defended the trademark commercials just months prior, as President Trump had nominated him in his first term to be Labor Secretary.
“I think that any grocery store you go into, or drug stores, you’re going to see on magazine covers things that are more revealing than you saw in many of our ads,” Puzder told Fox Business. “We saved the company with those ads, we saved a lot of jobs.”
Puzder abruptly resigned from the helm at Carl’s Jr. the same month the marketing changes were announced, and he withdrew from the Labor nomination after Democratic backlash.
The brand’s return to racy advertising comes as major companies have soured on virtue signaling.
“I think it does reflect a shift in how the country is feeling,” Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing and associate chair of the marketing department at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, told The Wall Street Journal.
“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,” he added.
The ad almost certainly wouldn’t have run several years ago, when gender equality and diversity were larger focuses in American mainstream culture, Calkins told the Journal.
Earle, who has racked up over 7 million followers by sharing her party girl lifestyle on TikTok and hosts her own “Hot Mess” podcast, shared the ad with her followers on Wednesday.
“This is the new world with new rules and new rulers. Alix Earle is a social media empress,” Jennifer Tate, chief marketing officer at Carl’s Jr. parent company CKE Restaurants, told the Journal. “Carl’s Jr. is having so much fun doing things other brands are too timid to do.”
