…i.e., Without Having To Acknowledge The Existance of Fat, Ugly, Old, or Otherwise Unhip People.
I mean have you seen these adds? In the first one you see two ultra-hip looking dudes…in fact they have a skate-rattish look to them. They’re eating their burgers when — Ohmigod – the obnoxious, grossly fat waiter starts telling them about the deserts. OK, I hate it when waiters rush me, and this waiter is clearly incompetent. As far as that might have been the point of the commercial, I don’t object to it. But it seems that the producers had to get a fat actor just to make the restaurant seem sufficiently revolting.
In the other one I saw, the set-up is much the same. The same two guys are having their burgers, when a whole group of —Ohmigod—OLD PEOPLE gets up and walks by the two guys’ table. Of course, being old, they can’t get out of there with sufficient dispatch to please the dudes. We hear bovine mooing noises in the background.
I mean WTF?!? I don’t like incompetent waiters, and I’m not a participant in the fat-acceptance movement, but come on Carl’s Jr.! Whatever happened to treating everyone with dignity? Did you have to use a fat waiter whose clothes don’t quite fit to illustrate the idea of server obnoxiousness?
That commercial is awful in about ten different ways. It wins the awful decathalon. The worst part about it, to me, is how loud the eating noises are. I’m not usually bugged too much by that but it’s unbearable in that ad. I can’t imagine how people who hate eating noises react to it.
And also, the guys are just sitting there staring off into space. Are the singing waiters really disturbing their good time?
You probably don’t watch American TV; it’s a series of TV ads that Carl’s Jr. is running. Actually I’m not sure; perhaps Carl’s Jr is regional and you have to be in the right part of the U.S.
Also, Carl’s Jr. are essentially the same outfit as Hardee’s, but there aren’t a whole lot of them left on the east coast, either (I see them in western Pennsylvania).
What is most shocking is that, while I do not live where they have a Carl’s Jr., I can assume from visiting other fast food places THAT WE ARE THEIR CUSTOMER BASE! No chain can survive on the business that thin, young, attractive, and hip people will throw their way. No long-term sales forecasting can be made if one must hope that your chain STAYS hip. So it makes no sense whatsoever to insult us. There is always a McDonalds or Burger King or Wendy’s down the street. Dave Thomas knows what we want because he is one of us. I’m sure Carl Jr is dead because nobody starts a business like that without being one of us.
And next to the IHOP about a half-mile from my apartment in Virginia. Come to think of it, there’s one in the other direction down by the Fairfax County Parkway, too.
Actually Carl’s Jr. and Hardees must be the exact same resteraunt, because here in TN we have those exact same commercials. The same skate rattish dudes eating with the obnoxious (fairly creepy) waiters singing “Happy Birthday” in the backround. The ad is for Hardees $6 burger.
I wonder at what point the “Carl’s” become “Hardees”. It is sorta like the whole “Krystal” in the south, “White Castle” in the north thing. Different names, basically the same food.
I’ve long thought that Carl’s needed to fire their ad agency. The $6 burger ads weren’t too awful - but I get sorta grossed out by the ads that show burger drippings splashing all down the actors’ clothes. And one short-lived ad that showed ketchup splashes nearly drowning the ants and beetles that were swarming over the burger eater’s kitchen floor.
Yeah, that’s the response you’re looking for: Eeeew. Gross.
