I Hate Carl's Jr's Commercials

Monday, February 25, 2008
I really just don't understand Carl Jr's Commercials.



The above is just one example for the Carl Jr's Chili Cheeseburger. They have had several commercials just like this where the person eating the burger is making a terrible mess. Somehow this is supposed to get me to want to eat their burgers. Do people actually find this an effective marketing message? I certainly don't and would love to know why anybody would.

32 comments:

Niiiiicolas! said...

Thier target market is young adolecent males...not nerdy bloggers. They aren't trying to market towards you.

T said...

I get that they aren't trying to market to me, but even when I was an adolescent male, I don't think I would ever be swayed by a commercial touting how messy something would be when i ate it. Maybe I'm just too clean of a person.

Jenny said...

I usually hate all Carl's Jr commercials (as well as the food there, too), but that one I thought was a little funny.

mj said...

i can't stand 'em either but i think the fact that you talked about it in some way, (sadly) validates their marketing campaign.

Anonymous said...

I work in marketing and was thinking about what a great job they have been doing lately. I was actually looking up articles about there campaign and strategy when I found this blog. I actually kind of expected to find lots of feminists outraged about the commercials...which would only help their cause. I don't eat their burgers either but they really hit home with the more tradition gender roles. The psychology behind the adds make men out to be "rough" and slightly "barbaric".. and yet the woman is so understanding and accepting of the fact. She likes her man like this...as this is how men are suppose to be. One of my favorites is the one where the guy is working in a garage on his hotrod and his "sexy" girl friend patiently watches him and then she hands him a giant burger and he reaches out with his greasy dirty hands and grabs it and takes a big bite.

In a way this whole campaign offers men (which in many ways has become alienated by America's feminist movement) a positive reinforcement of "manhood". Many men would not recognize this as many men have been diluted by this movement.

So if you were wondering why marketers do what they do then now ya know.

From Melissa Calldwell, Director of Parents Television Council

"This commercial is basically soft-core porn. The way she moves, the way she puts her finger in her mouth — it's very suggestive and very titillating."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl's_Jr.

What happened to the days a man could really just enjoy the things he likes doing and enjoy looking at a pretty woman? If you don't like watching then turn it off. If you don't want your kids to watch... turn it off.

Anonymous said...

I can't stand these ads, and i definitely wouldn't eat at Carl's Jr because of them.....

Anonymous said...

I have stopped going to Carl's Jr., since they started these retarded spots. They're gross, sloppy, and make me want to vomit. Men can be men without wearing their food. That just make them slobs.

Greg DS said...

I am totally with you here...Nothing disgusts me quite as much as placing a microphone pretty much on the inner cheek of some schlub chewing like a cow on a disastrously messy burger. (maybe there is something worse, but it's close)

I won't eat there just on principle...idiots.

worky said...

I absolutely despise carl's jr commercials. They are crappy to women. (I know, they are not trying to target women either). They are crappy to men too actually by presenting them as messy nasty hypermasculine jerks.

I haven't had their food in 5 years. and when I'm with a large group of people and we want to go for fast food I always vote Carls Jr out.

if they don't want my business I'll be more than happy to oblige.

Anonymous said...

unccbryan says:


"this is how men are suppose to be" and
"In a way this whole campaign offers men [..] a positive reinforcement of "manhood". Many men would not recognize this as many men have been diluted by this movement."

who said this is how men are supposed to be? you?

I think real men can decide for themselves and don't need neither carls junior nor you to tell them what they are supposed to be like.

maybe your brain has been "diluted" buddy.

Anonymous said...

I will not eat there because of their Commercials.

Unknown said...

These commercials are so incredibly moronic and annoying I had to look online to see if I was alone in my disgust.Truth is I knew that I would find many others that felt similar but was frightened to find that there is a least one dude out there watching these dated ads and finding a sense of male pride and reassuring comfort? Wow

good luck with that MAN

Anonymous said...

I agree that these are probably some of the stupidest commercials I have ever seen. What is with the announcer? He sounds like a total brain dead retard. I used to eat there once in a while before that new campaign started a few years ago but no more. In-N-Out Burger all the way!!!

Unknown said...

I like the commercials. I am a 30 year old female and have to disagree with you. They are not targeting the young adult males;however it appears they are saying even hot,sexy women will eat a hamburger and enjoy it. It makes me want to eat a hamburger and I don't even like hamburgers.

Anonymous said...

I also cant stand carls jr ads even the voiceover guy has a smug arrogant tone that makes me want to punch him in the face.I never eat at that place because of those stupid ads

Eatkhash said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Casady said...

Okay--now--ya can't be calling bloggers nerds without actually, ah, blogging, hello! And I don't think they're trying to target young adolescent males. Sure, Wally and the Beav might have gone there with the deliquent encouragement of Eddie Haskel: "Come on Sam they got this cool place where food falls out of your face--oh--good afternoon Mrs. Cleaver..." We America pie peopled culture love this tripe-and the tripe in Carl's jr.'s product no doubt. Bottom line? Bottoms sells. Kaka sells. Potty talk sells. This is Carl's jr. and the young guys will enjoy eating at Carl's right up to their first double bypass! I hope they never take their dates there!

Zanatos said...

I don't even have to look at the television to know when a Carl's Jr. commercial is on. The ridiculously loud slurping, chewing and swallowing sounds in all of their commercials sound like 10 people having group sex in a puddle of KY jelly. It actually turns my stomach every time I hear it.

Martha said...

SINCE THESE COMERCIALS BEGAN I HAVE TOTALLY STOPPED EATING AT THEIR ESTABLISHMENTS, THEY APPARENTLY DON'T WANT MY BUSSINESS ANYWAY SINCE THEIR COMERCIALS AREN'T TARGETTING Me. I FIND THEM tasteless and disgusting. Why don't they just show the guy screwing the burger itself??? I could have sworn they also sold kids meals... but who cares they don't want to target moms either I guess??

Anonymous said...

okay, i work at carls, and it maybe a messy commercial but thats not the point, the point the owner puts across is why go to mcdonalds and get a small burger with nothing on it besides a pressed floppy patty, our burgers are charbroiled and cooked to a certain temperature and they are cooked to order, sure they may be a little messy but you get your filling, mcdonalds bugers are small and dinky where carls burgers are filling... my point is the commercial is there to open the customers eyes and say, Hey do you want a real burger or someones fake stuff? the ingredents used are prepped fresh daily. and its not something that is just slapped together, maybe the people that ate the burgers went to a resturant that had really poor quality because the cooks were not doing their job correctly, my resuraunt is top 5 in las vegas and we have people coming back more then once a day to eat our food, its not just the food, its the preperation that makes the burger. i hope most of you can see through the advertisement and try something to like the resturant better.... and plus.... there are more burgers on the menu that arent messy... think about it... if you put chili on a burger DUHH ITS GOING TO BE MESSY!!!

:)

Anonymous said...

I hate allCarl's Jr's commercials. It's as if we are all mindless, lazy twits who doesn't know any better. Especially the two female receptionist eating at the front desk while the phone keeps ringing & ringing. They continually ignore their jobs. As if working at Carl's Jr. was better than working at the front office. Give me a break.

meng said...

To me being a men means to prove nothing even if he have to get a little messy with eating. All he has to do is wipe it off after he finish the burger.Our society has changed so much that we have to think that a person must be clean and professional all the time. I mean we do agree that Carls Jr commercials are ridiculous, but I think that doesnt make everything bad. Just try the other burgers and you will fall in love with it. To me you get a better deal at Carls Jr for the burger size than any other fast food. MCD and Jack has some great burgers, but the burgers are so small that it doesnt fill you up and the burgers are smaller than expected. My point to all of this is that men are men we can eat how we want and this doesnt say that all men are messy it is that men likes to eat their burger how they like it.

Anonymous said...

anyone who takes this commercial seriously is an idiot. men are proper and we learn to be clean that is the beauty of these commercials. It is a satire of our natural instincts to be messy. No I'm not going to eat a burger in the way he does but that's what makes it funny. It's ironic because men always strive to be clean yet because of our nature we can sometimes be messy without us knowing it. Anyone that doesn't realize this has obviously never been on a date.

Anonymous said...

I HATE these commercials - they are DISGUSTING. Does being male have to mean being crude and w/o basic manners? I don't think so. Eating like this in the chow hall or around other soldiers would get reprimand. I was working guard duty on an Army base one night and the young soldiers (guys in the target demographic) started talking about this. ALL of them found Carls Jr commericals disgusting. One guy even said he would drive right past Carls Jr to the other side of town to eat at Burger King BECAUSE of those commercials. I wrote an email to Carls Jr tellling the effect their commercials were having. The execs at Carls Jr are SO SURE that the only people who would feel this way are "stupid" females they assumed I was some clueless soccer mom, and they replied to me that their target demographic was young males in the teens to about 30 - not those "such as myself" (ie moms and kiddies at home in the evenings) as if I were a clueless, irrelevant soccer mom INSTEAD of the single soldier I clearly identified myself as. Morons.
I wonder how many people Carls Jr has alienated as oppopsed to "reaching"...

bjkaye said...

I agree with the others who say that the commercials show that the burgers are juicy. I get it. Getting the mess all over his face isn't so bad. What I hate are the loud SOUNDS of chewing. It sounds like they put the microphone IN his mouth. YUCK. It makes me sick. I can't reach for the mute button fast enough.

Anonymous said...

That's lame since the commercials only last a few seconds in between something your watching. You obviously suck at marketing to even make such a comment. Mc Ds , and in and out always packed...carls never a line ..js. Carls is not making as much as they can.

Unknown said...

Their commercials annoy me for several reason. I think it's how fake it is... Girl pulls out a burger from a bag that has no wraper... Litte stuff like that just gets to me. Too extreme with perfection.

Unknown said...

I agree since I wrote that haha. Marketer... I'd never hire you to market anything but porn or underwear

Unknown said...

Perfect example of a pipe dream. Healthy woman don't usually eat at Carls Jr. sweet heart.. Poor message to send to our already large population.

Anonymous said...

There should be a boycott day, that's the only language they understand. Someone needs to be the voice of our children. There should be a parental warning on those commercials which are not suitable for all audience.

Anonymous said...

Loud chomping noises and eating with mouth open with sub text that these dolts are 'better' than regular people that eat normally-or that women are sexy when they chomp loudly and spatter food all over themselves is so incredibly idiotic I can't believe there's even any debate here.

Colojimbo said...

So true. I'd like to smash his sloppy eating face.