A pair of racy ads from the same people who brought you much-maligned ads featuring heiress Paris Hilton have done it again, kicking off a protest campaign from Rev. Donald Wildmon’s American Family Association. Hardees and Carl’s Jr. are owned by CKE Restaurants. AFA says one ad features a "sexualized female teacher in a high school classroom" discussing "flat buns," and in the other, a "scantily clad woman gyrates to a countdown of things she wants a man to do to her" while eating a "patty melt sandwich." AFA has an email ready to go for would-be protestors, who are asked to send the message to television stations in their area (and ignore radio and newspaper selection options). Wildmon writes, "Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. have a solid history of completely ignoring consumer complaints." But he supplied corporate contact information and suggested contacting local restaurants as well.
RBR/TVBR observation: We checked out one of the ads, and we note the wisdom of AFA’s decision to go straight to the corporation and keep the FCC out of the loop. We didn’t find the ad very appealing, and we’re quite convinced we’re not in the demographic Carl’s Jr. was selling to. But hey, the sandwich really is served on a flat bun. Since the Founding Fathers failed to outlaw dancing and double entendres, there really are no grounds for demanding the commercial be taken off the air. The ideal method of protesting commercial messages you do not like is to refuse to buy the product. We don’t buy Carl’s Jr. products ourselves in part because there are no franchises in our area. There are only a handful of Hardee’s restaurants in these parts, and we avoid them too. Because our doctor wants us to stay away from fast food.
