Sexy Carl’s Jr. Ad Can Get a Little Dirty Too

Advertiser: Carl’s Jr. restaurants

Agency: Mendelsohn/Zien Advertising, Los Angeles

Challenge: Find a new way to set up the drippy Carl’s hamburger, the focus of the fast-food chain’s ongoing campaign.

The Ad: An attractive woman and a young man meet in a Laundromat. She’s eating a melting ice cream bar. He’s eating a Carl’s Jr. Superstar. As the food drips on their clothes, they undress themselves, layer by layer, and toss the soiled items in the wash. Drips fall on his boxers, so he removes them, anticipating a liaison. But she’s done with her wash, so she puts on her clean dungarees and leaves. Embarrassed, he covers up with a Carl’s Jr. bag. A voice-over tells viewers that when they eat Carl’s burgers, “Things can get a little dirty.”

Comment: This strip-tease disguised as a fast-food commercial is perfect ammo for people who want to see ads with ratings so TVs with V-chips can zap them out. But we’ve seen in the past that Carl’s isn’t afraid of offending viewers who fall outside its target--young fast-food gobbling males. (The company’s previous “Eat Meat” campaign, for example, so offended a vegetarian group that it briefly occupied Carl’s flagship restaurant last April).

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