For one restaurant conglomerate, sex apparently no longer sells…its burgers and fries, that is. According to Nation’s Restaurant News, CKE Restaurant Holdings Inc., the parent company of fast-food staples Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., is looking to move away from its recent advertising campaigns featuring scantily-clad women and return to a more wholesome image as the “pioneers of the great American burger.”
To jog your memory, here is an example of the “old way,” starring Kate Upton (a.k.a. this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue cover girl).
And the company, via its longtime ad agency 72andSunny, explained the rebrand through a fictional storyline. This ad stars Nashville‘s Charles Esten as Carl Hardee, Sr., who returns to the company to refocus the burger chain on its pioneering roots.
It remains to be seen whether the company’s new direction will rope in more customers—or send them packing for the other guys.
—RealClearLife
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