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Burger King, Carl's Jr. Remind Us: Burgers = Sex, Duh
Two sexy burger ad revelations today. First, the burger-as-blow-job Burger King ad burst onto the scene, second, The Hills' Audrina Partridge becomes the latest scantily clad lady to make love to, I mean, to lustily eat a Carl's Jr. burger. In the ad, that started airing today, Partridge pretends to eat a ginormous pineapple burger while lying on a beach in a bikini, alternately resting the burger on her toned tummy. The tagline: "More than just a piece of meat." The ad sends exactly the opposite message of course. Partridge, just like Paris Hilton and Padma Lakshmi before her, has every right to chow down on this burger, but to suggest they all do so on the regular is just silly. To make women envious, and men horny, well, that’s advertising for you.
The fine-print on this choice Burger King ad:
"Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled with the NEW BK SUPER SEVEN INCHER. Yearn for more after you taste the mind-blowing burger that comes with a single beef patty, topped with American cheese, crispy onions and the A1 Thick and Hearty Steak Sauce."
A1 should be embarrassed and ashamed. Or else totally peeved that they didn't think of fashioning their 8-inch tall bottle as a phallic tower of manhood. Thick and Hearty? An explosion of flavor? The pieces were all right there!
But will BJ's BK's ad backfire? That 18-34 demographic of burger-loving, frat boys and ex-frat boys who swill beer with their buds and play touch football, but are also hopelessly homophobic, how will they feel "blowing their mind" on this 7-incher? I predict men will be wary of the order even, lest the cashier, who probably only gets the lowly Whopper Jr. on her break, think they likes the beef, if you know what I mean.
In all seriousness, the BK ad is pretty gross, but perhaps a bigger deal than degrading ads is that these burgers are really, really bad for us, and for the planet. Surprise surprise, it was only a matter of time before ads became less subliminally sexist and shallow, and more overtly so. Sex sells, we know this, and Carl's Jr. and Burger King are spelling it out in all caps, using people who don't eat their burgers, and outrageous ads that will have the worldwide web achatter about its sexual innuendo, not about its saturated fat and calories (BK doesn't yet list the 7-incher's nutritional profile yet but its Double Whopper with cheese has 1,010 calories and 24 grams of saturated fat, 66 grams total).
And since Burger King is going racy and explicit in targeting sex-crazed burger eaters, maybe they could unstraddle that fence they're riding with their homepage web promotion touting their commitment to kids, healthy meals, and active lifestyles. "Hey parents!" it exclaims. Hey parents is right.
gross.
On a similar note, I noticed this Skyy Vodka billboard somewhere in SF the other day.
I've seen those too! It
I've seen those too! It irritates me, and frankly makes me want to drink something else with my tonic when I go out. Skyy Vodka (and the Svedka sexy robots) and shove it.
Gross, is a grotesque
Gross, is a grotesque understatement.
I think, that BK and I,will be parting ways, for a very long time.
what about mcdonald's?
now that the burger gauntlet has been thrown, they'll have to up the ante somehow. give a whole new meaning to golden arches, maybe? i don't actually want to know.
New Media Editor, Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/authors/laura-mcclure
Sex as art
I actually like the Carl's Jr. ads. They are such sexual hyperbole they I can't help but see the satire in it. It's that goofiness that, just as much as the hot women, I think appeals to the beer swilling frat boys. As for this new BK I agree I think that guys will be turned off. There is no better way to discourage a man from eating a huge burger than to have him imagine it's a big, greasy phallus that is seeping red and white gunk and crusted over with brown scales. I'm almost making myself sick.
Realdoll or blow-up?
I can't tell, but is the model a Realdoll? Maybe I am just too obsessed with $6000 facsimiles of women, but the model definitely looks made up to resemble a blow-up doll or a Realdoll.
This thing looks disgusting.
This thing looks disgusting. I'll stick to my standard BK choice:
- Whopper Jr.
- Heavy tomato
- No mayo
Hardee's Holes
Not to be outdone, Hardee's is asking people to name their biscuit holes, asking "Are you my hole?" Their favorite option internally was Biznuts:
http://www.nameourholes.com/
Don't Forget Sephora
Less explicit, but just as suggestive is this Sephora ad: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42679443@N00/1106766589
That BK ad is real? I saw it
That BK ad is real? I saw it on an image board last night and thought someone shooped it as a joke.
Another day, another ad
Rules of advertising:
1) Sex sells
2) See Rule 1
A tasteless (in all possible senses of that word) ramping up of Quizno's ad for its 'torpedo:' "Put it in me, Scott."
In the copycatting world of fast-food competition, can we now expect the rollout of the McClinton?
"More meat for your mouth."
Wrong but whatever
As a guy in the age group that BK is targeting, I gotta say that ad presents the burger in a highly unappealing way. They're presenting the burger as a guys parts and I'm a straight guy so what makes them think I want to put their sandwich anywhere near my face? I don't mean to be graphic, but the connotation is simply wrong. The Carls ads do a much better job. I'd rather watch Paris eat a 6 dollar burger.
Of course, I'm not really their target market anymore. I used to eat plenty of fast food, but after turning 30 the metabolism doesn't burn through it like when you're 20. I finally went on a fat burning diet to drop all the fast food pounds I'd put on. Our country would be better off from a health standpoint if we'd all stop eating so much of the junk!
Our country would also be
Our country would also be much better off from a (mental) health standpoint if men (and women) stopped being so accepting of women being degraded in the media. But I wouldn't expect you, as a guy, to think of that. ;-)
With all the other crap going on in the world...
With all the other crap going on in the world some one is worried Burger King's puerile ad campaign is: a) sexist; b) anti-gay.
I quit eating fastfood burgers back in the Eighties over so-called jungle beef. McDonalds, Burger King et al didn't miss a lick because I stopped eating their crap. And I don't think they'll lose any sleep if all Mother Jones readers stop eating their...ahem...product.
However whining about their stupid advertisement will only draw wing nutty cases of arrested development like flies to carrion. Burger King couldn't pay for publicity this good.
Burger King can't pay for publicity this good.
@ETSpoon is absolutely right. What better way to launch a new product then set the internet aflame with an overly suggestive ad? How many people know what Burger King's last new product launch even was? Very, very few. This method turns the traditional medium of print medium into a viral campaign into almost zero cost.
The mentions have spiked on Twitter and other social media and every single time this ad is mentioned, it is shown. You can't BUY placement that good. I mean look at this page, it's above ads that companies paid for on Mother Jones.
Besides, the advertisement was made for release in Singapore, not the United States. What was a localized, targeted effort has become a full fledged viral campaign and all of you bought into it.
It's Burger King, they gave up on trying to convince people who are healthy to buy their food years ago. McDonalds went the path of trying to convert light users into medium users, while Burger King took the opposite path: covert the medium users into heavy users. These are people who don't care about nutritional merit, they just want food that tastes good.
Women. It's being marketed
Women. It's being marketed to women.
If it were being sold to men, it would have a man on it. And it wouldn't be all gay.
-a
What?
Are you making a dumb joke? If that were the case, Burger King would go bankrupt. I sincerely doubt any woman would feel compelled to buy one after seeing that disgusting ad. That would be an ad targeted to a sick guy's idea of what women want.
Obnoxious Burger King Ad, arn't they all?
Sorry,
I am a hard core beer swilling porn addict and this is just not suggestive enough to get me to stop my eating veal at every opportunity since I know they really have to make the young calfs suffer.
If we are going to engage our values here, can we aim a little higher here and try to all not eat anything made from factory farm butchery factories?
Thanks!
Burger King BJ.
Is it as good as the BJ at Freuds of Copenhagen?
One BJ please.
Oh Please....
Oh please....it's just a burger commercial. So it's got tons of fat, cholesterol, and everything bad for you. If you wanted something healthy, you wouldn't go to a burger joint to find it.
Sex has been selling everything from TVs to soap for as long as there has been advertising. Nobody thinks they're going to start looking like Audrina Partridge if they eat many Big Whoopers.
If you want reality, watch a documentary or read other articles in Mother Jones. You're not going to find it in advertising.
Lighten Up
Get a sense of humor. The ads are funny and entertaining. Maybe if this puritanical country allowed more suggestive comments, Sanford, Ensign, Edwards, Clinton et al. wouldn't have had to find dishonest outlets for their energy.
To get the full effect, you
To get the full effect, you have to swallow, of course.
Can you see the same ad with a smiling young fellow on the left, and a steamy taco dripping melted cheese on the right?
For me, what makes the ad offensive (rather than amusingly suggestive) is the blank doll like expression on the woman's face (as Jen Phillips above notes). At least in the Carl Jr spots the women are lustily doing something, rather than being about to be done to.
You put your finger on what
You put your finger on what was bothering me about the picture. Yeah, sex is in the advertising everywhere, but I really dislike the vacant glassy look on the woman's face. It perpetuates that women really don't have a brain.
I wonder why BK doesn't sell
I wonder why BK doesn't sell a hot dog?
You forgot to mention the
You forgot to mention the implicit idea in the ad that women enjoy giving oral sex. I'm sick of the woman=orifice imagery in advertising.
Burger Mouth
I live in Tokyo and this demeaning /sexist perspective is rife and more rampant in Japanese Advertising
You say that like it's a bad
You say that like it's a bad thing....just kidding. I live here in Tokyo too; there are certain Japanese social conventions and boundaries, but thankfully nothing resembling U.S.-hyper-puritanism.
Burger King Add.
Come now, people. Do you really think a Biggie like Burger King would place an add like that or their minds were in the gutter? Your minds are in the gutter. A simple add made by simple idea men who had not thought of the consiquences, right?
To bad Jay Leno quit Tonight. What a ball he would have had with that one.
Burger King Add.
Come now, people. Do you really think a Biggie like Burger King would place an add like that or their minds were in the gutter? Your minds are in the gutter. A simple add made by simple idea men who had not thought of the consiquences, right?
To bad Jay Leno quit Tonight. What a ball he would have had with that one.
Burger King Add.
Come now, people. Do you really think a Biggie like Burger King would place an add like that or their minds were in the gutter? Your minds are in the gutter. A simple add made by simple idea men who had not thought of the consiquences, right?
To bad Jay Leno quit Tonight. What a ball he would have had with that one.
Sorry,
Sorry, I hit the button too many times. Will not happen again, I promise..
The "woman" in the ad
The "woman" in the ad doesn't appear to be enjoying anything.
BK ads
I'll continue to have it "my way," by eating at home.
I don't like the objectification of women, even if they're too dumb to realize that's what's happening.
Quiznos also has an ad
Quizno's also has an ad featuring a footlong sandwich with the sandwich speaking to the male server suggestively in a male voice and begging him to "put it in me". So weird. Who makes this stuff?
racey junk food ads
Actually, in the Quizno's ad, it's the oven (with a male voice) saying "put it in me Scott, I'm waiting" They have another ad which is even more perverse. You're right...who does dream up this stuff?
One thing is for sure. Any
One thing is for sure. Any woman who routinely wolfs down food like this isn't going to be a pretty little thing for long unless she is hyperthyroid.
another off-the-mark burger ad
While not sexual, the Carl's ad for the little hamburgers showing little cows the size of dogs has pushed me to the vegetarian side of the pasture. I always tried to forget about where meat came from but those tiny cows keep popping in my head. Thanks for making me eat healthier, Carl!
Well,....
At least they've finally made it so obvious that even I can see it. And I like the objectification of women, especially when its sexual objectification. It's not as if women don't dive in head first. I have no idea why so many women, or even young girls, are so eager to remove most or all of their clothes to appear in front of a camera. But I appreciate it...up to a point. Take a look at female athletes...I was briefly watching women's beach volleyball (shouldn't be considered a sport) today and the women were wearing "bikinis" that would not be legal in public unless worn for a sporting event. And that seems to be true now for most women's sporting events, _except swimming_ paradoxically. Does this semi-nudity enhance athletic performance? Most men wear long shorts. Would somewhat more modest attire be appropriate? Probably would set a good example. I'm not a prude and simply can't wait for female athletes to just discard their clothes completely, while other less talented (ahem...) women claim they are being sexually objectified. As for the advertisements, I've been seeing extremely hot young women doing auto advertisements for some time now. The Buick girl is exceptionally hot, but not hot enough to get me to buy a Buick, or even think about Buicks. Like I said, point a camera their way, and a woman will happily remove her clothes. Maybe they understand that their body is their most important asset in attracting suitable mates.
Well, I'm a vegetarian so I
Well, I'm a vegetarian so I won't ever be eating this. Thanks for mentioning this ad even though it's clearly not the only ad or company to use sex to sell a product.
I think we need a law that
I think we need a law that each advertisement for meat products has to be precluded by inside video of a slaughter house. The way most of these animals have to suffer before and while they die is not a simple "lights out" experience.
Then show whatever add for burgers etc. including sexy women or not. Only a frustrated serial killer would still make this one of their food choices.
It should be noted that the
It should be noted that the BK advert is in Singapore only, and will not be displayed in North America.
Caracas ad
True, Anon, this ad is Singapore. Check out this Whopper billboard up in Caracas currently, where a reporter friend is stationed:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nl68bh
Blow Job Burgers
I deplore these ads and will not go to either establishment. However, I want to say that I thought the tenor and text of your article were equally juvenile and offensive. Why not treat the subject with the seriousness it deserves instead of matching the vile caliber of the ads with an equally purile and vile commentary?
Lighten up?
I just noticed the comment which begins, "Lighten up." An important point is being missed by this writer who, I guarantee, is a man. That is: woman as receptacle. Take note that these ads and their accompanying text all depict woman as mere receptacles for men to dump into or to service male organs, which are also somehow seen as separate from their owners. All of these ads objectify women and their "servicing" parts. Men who cannot see this would naturally see the ads as funny.
Burger Hegemony
I haven't eaten Burger King since they fired me in the early 80's after I had the timerity to request some time to heal from the burns I got on the job. I quit eating at the Scottish Burger joint years before that (I will not eat food shilled by a clown, especially a clown that breaks all respectable clowning traditions by TALKING!). I worked at Arbies too for a while in the 80's, I can't eat their stuff anymore either, now that I know that their "roast beef" is essentially canned beef spam. I used to actually like Wendies and Kentucky fried, but after the Colonel merged with Taco Bell they did something to the frying oil i think, because after the merger Kentucky fried also makes me feel ill. I don't know when Wendies went south, but now it makes me ill as well. In general if the restaurant puts teenagers in brightly colored uniform shirts and has them make food, I refuse to eat there. I can't think of a fast food outlet that doesn't make me shudder. I can maybe eat a Nathan's hot dog at a New Jersey Turnpike Rest area, but otherwise it's a desert out there, and I usually try to plan ahead and supply my own logistical needs rather than trust any fast food chain with my delicate digestive tract.
Really?! Really? really.
tagged as:- solution
Come on guys. This kind of uber-feminazi political correctness crap is ruining our country. How can we possibly consider ourselves free and liberated if we can't even watch a woman make love to food on public television? It's practically in the bill of rights, and you guys are spitting all over it like it's some sort of crime.
Honestly though, I do have a problem with all the complaining about stuff like this. Because, you know what? I guarantee you that the ad executives in charge of all of these advertisements were planning one thing, and one thing only, and it wasn't the objectification of women. All they want is to sell more product. Whining - and that is what you all are doing - not only doesn't solve anything, it's incredibly irritating.
To be entirely honest with you, I like these ads. I don't really eat fast food that often, and when I do, I go with what tastes good. But I'm always in the mood to see a scantily clad woman on my television set, and I could really care less about why she's there. You know what other ads are overtly sexual? Woman's shampoo ads. And I don't hear any of you complaining about those? Why? I don't know, but my guess is it's because it's not trendy to hate on hair-care products, and getting uppity about the "wrongdoings" of the fast food companies has practically become a national pastime after SuperSize Me.
None of this means a gorram thing. It's just pseudo-intellectual moral masturbation.
I wash my hands of it.
I would have to say her
I would have to say her facial expression is "Dutiful" Bk has a winner here
Think about this...
The average customer at fast food restaurants is uneducated, at least post high-school at best, and obviously could care less about what little entendre, subtlety or subliminality they can perceive, if any. Bottom line, the more of them that eat that crap, the less of them (by numbers, not individual proportions =P) there will be in the long run. Think positive!
Are you the f'ing highlander?
Bottom line, the more of them that eat that crap, the less of them (by numbers, not individual proportions =P) there will be in the long run. Think positive!
Umm, it's gonna take a long time for the fast food generation to be killed by their fast food. And, it's going to happen in the form of Diabetes and Cancer, and these same people are going to run up the tab on Medicare and SSI until they finally do kick over.
Unless you plan on being around in 300 years to take advantage of the generational losses to the food war, I'd stop consoling yourself and start taking a more active role.
On the contrary - they
On the contrary - they reproduce like rabbits, and that's the problem. The health impacts of that crap food will hurt the rest of us via environmental degradation long before those knuckleheads start dropping dead.