Baby Got Burgers?
Posted: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 3:00 AM by Allison Linn
Filed Under:
Food and drink
Back in the 1990s, Sir Mix-A-Lot made a lot of women with a little extra bootie into lifelong fans with his instant classic “Baby Got Back.” Before that, Van Halen helped cement its ’80s-era big hair/bad boy image with the classic “Hot For Teacher.”
Now along comes Carl’s Jr.
Just in time for back to school, the fast food restaurant’s latest ad features a teacher shaking her booty in front of a classroom of ogling, pubescent white boys rapping about how they like “flat buns” - on their patty melt, that is - while their teacher bumps and grinds. Sample lyric: “Stand sideways, girl, you disappear.”
 |
| Carl's Jr. |
The ad is meant to promote the sandwich’s flat burger buns, although one can’t help but note that, at 570 calories and 32 grams of fat, the patty melt is not likely to make your own buns any flatter.
While the commercial could have been a clever nod to pop culture’s past, Carl’s Jr. opts for trashy over witty, and the spot comes off as crass rather than clever.
Click here to watch the ad.
Of course, Carl’s Jr. is also the company behind Paris Hilton’s raunchy car wash ad of a couple years back. Perhaps the company won’t mind a little backlash, as long as it gets people talking, and teenage boys watching.
It’s just the latest entrant in the ever-competitive race for the most attention-grabbing, if not tasteful, fast food commercial.
Jack in the Box got a lot of press earlier this year when it implied that its competitors’ Angus burgers come from a less savory part of a cow’s body than Jack in the Box’s new sirloin ones. A legal brouhaha ensued, but a judge allowed Jack in the Box to continue to make Angus the butt of its jokes.
Also wading into the waters of sophomoric sex jokes, Dairy Queen recently ran a series of ads implying that one of its new Blizzard desserts was created after a soft serve ice cream and a waffle cone got it on. The image in one spot of two adults in a candlelit bedroom, dressed in ridiculous ice cream and waffle outfits, is more awkward than amusing. Note to advertisers: Sex doesn’t sell everything.
A summer favorite has been Wendy’s series of silly commercials featuring a guy in a red braid wig, reminiscent of the classic Wendy’s logo.
The ads feature our red-wigged hero questioning why people are doing what everyone else is doing -- kicking trees, jumping blindly into a massive hole -- when they can demand better.
The ads manage to be quirky and memorable without resorting to bootie jokes or amorous meetings between food. Thanks, Wendy’s.
