Hardee's Biggest Franchisee Attacks Hardee's Ads

Finally, the obnoxious-fast-food-ad trend may have gone too far. Hardee's largest franchisee, Ben Mayo Boddie, is understandably upset over the CKE Restaurants-owned (CKR) company's recent campaign, which is worthy of the lowliest frat house at a third-tier state college.

As noted earlier in this space, the "Name Our Holes" campaign for a biscuit-hole product, created by the agency Mendelsohn Zien, includes TV spots that depict "people on the street" choosing between the A-Hole and the B-Hole in a taste test. You can pretty much write the rest yourself if you have half a mind, as the people at Mendelsohn Zien apparently do. Some of the people are shown suggesting "Cinnanuts," "Bisticles," and "Ball Munchers." Har.

It was too much for Boddie, who operates 350 Hardee's outlets from his headquarters in Rocky Mount, N.C. After the Parents Television Council (a group made up of people who purport to "protect" children from naughty words, etc., in movies and TV shows) wrote to Boddie, he wrote back saying that the campaign "diminishes not only the product but the brand itself." He promised that his company won't be running the ads in its markets and that he is "also asking that these commercials be eliminated in all markets."

Tim Winter, head of the PTC, applauded Boddie and decried, among other aspects of the campaign, Hardee's "attempts at turning hamburgers into sex objects."

I'll try to find out exactly what that means and update but for now, I think it's a quote worth reproducing here.

According to Advertising Age, CKE's CEO, Andy Puzder, has rationalized the obnoxiousness of previous campaigns for both Hardee's and Carl's Jr. by basically saying he doesn't have enough money to be even minimally classy or grown-up. (Or as Ad Age put it: "Puzder has said that his brands' comparatively small advertising budget necessitates a sexier approach if they're going to cut through the clutter. ")