Seductive Advertising

It fascinates me to look at our society today and compare it to the past. In just a few decades so much has changed. I’m talking fast food is the norm, women’s clothes have become more revealing and it is OK for a male to be the “stay at home” dad! Just recently as I was driving I heard an ad for Carl’s JR come on the radio. At first it sounded kind of cheesy but the more I listened it started to catch my attention. This particular advertisement is for their new Memphis BBQ burger which has bbq’d pulled pork slapped onto a hamburger with some crunchy onion fries. It sounded pretty interesting but what caught my attention was the way it was being advertised.

                After digging into it a bit deeper and finding their 31 second normal (or the 69 second directors cut) commercial on YouTube it was exactly as I had imagined. The commercial features two attractive girls dressed in nearly nothing at a BBQ cook off. One is spreading sauce on her pork while the other is flipping her hamburger patties on a rustic BBQ pit. They begin to “bicker” when one gets their sauce on the others meat, which leads to a bumping fiasco that ultimately results in the bbq’d pork landing on top of the hamburger patty. This is then followed up by the usual CJ’s commentary while showing the two girls interlocking their arms around the others and feasting on their burgers.

At first I was unaware who the two girls were then one of my friends pointed out that one was super model and the other a playboy model. I’ve never heard of either but based off their looks, they definitely fit CJ’s pattern. It seems that Carl's Jr has become notorious for advertising their food products with sex appeal. In my opinion this particular ad isn’t as exposing as others (Kate Upton) however it does get the senses at attention.

It doesn’t appear that Carl's Jr has a set advertising template, however they seem to focus on targeting their audiences using emotion. They use the “famous person” approach however they usually don’t have the famous person giving a testimonial as much as they have that famous person showing off their body while embracing their food products.  They use a particular type of emotional branding, they focus on emotional association. It is natural for humans to procreate, and the way Carl's Jr uses sexual imagery to stimulate that “procreation” switch inside our brains forcing us to associate the food product with the sexual emotion! It does seem odd that they only target the males in this advertisement, but could you imagine if it were the other way around? What if it were a guy seductively eating a hamburger?  It also seems to target the rowdy crowd who are easier to “stimulate” and who’s morals and values might accept this sexual advertisement. Our society is more willing to accept these ads than ever before as people become more and more desensitized!

You can see in other Carl's JR commercials featuring Kim Kardashian, and Kate Upton how they use this sex appeal to get the attention of their target audience. In the Kim Kardashian commercial they depict her first eating a new Carl's JR salad in bed wearing a silk night gown talking about how "the best things in life are messy" but "its fun to get clean" which then shows her walking with her salad into the bathroom and getting in the bath...while still eating the salad! I don't think this is even close to the real life act of eating a salad. Most people would eat a salad in the kitchen, or even on the couch watching TV, but probably not in bed and I'm almost certain not in the bath! Now in the Kate Upton commercial they depict her at the drive-in eating a Southwest Patty Melt. Things seem to be going pretty normal, then as she is chowing down on this burger full of jalapenos she begins to sweat, and then starts a mini strip. I think the only part of this commercial that is true is the boyfriend in the other car that cant help but staring at Kate Upton! This is where Carl's JR makes it obvious as to who their target audience is. They seem to focus their cross hairs on the male gender in a pretty wide range of age. I would say anywhere from their late teens all the way up, only because their approach is through sex appeal, and anyone who is stimulated by the visuals is going to remember this commercial.

I also think that there are some stereotypes that emerge from the ad. First, the stereotype of the person in the ad who is eating the product. By looking at the Kate Upton's ad where the guy at the end is being "re-directed" by his girlfriend really points out the stereotype that women can use their body to get what they want. Carl's JR uses this tactic to their advantage by exploiting the female body to advertise their product in hopes that men will be attracted to the women and remember the food ad. The other stereo type is of the target audience which we determined was the male gender in their young adult life. This stereotype being that males are unable to control themselves when it comes to women, particularly half naked ones. At the end of the Memphis BBQ burger commercial the two "competitors" are helplessly staring at the two women, and they even pull our their camera phones ant take pictures. This is exactly what I am talking about! Not all men are unable to control themselves when it comes to beautiful women, which seems to be the angle the Carl's JR ad takes.

I would have to say that this commercial and the ones before it are quite successful. They show their strengths in their ability to pick visually stimulating props, as well as producing (on screen at least) a good looking hamburger, or even salads. I think that because they use sexy models, seductively eating their hamburgers their audience wants that product. I mean honestly they are successful just in the fact that they can get people to remember their product simply because of who was eating it. When looking at their target audience, they defiantly come off as clever and enjoyable to watch. However when you look at the other (non targeted audience) you get the groups of people that are offended. I think that because they use such a controversial topic people have a tendency to talk about how inappropriate the commercial was. If they are successful at getting one individual to talk about their ad at work the next day, then there is a chance that news of their new product might reach the ears of someone who didn’t see the commercial and that individual might possibly look into the product.This also includes people who might disagree with the ad. You could view this as a weakness of the ad because there are those individuals who wont even eat at Carl's JR because of how CJ uses this sex appeal to attract consumers. For example, a friend of mine chooses not to eat there because they exploit the women's body and because they use that image to promote their products. I think in advertising you will always have the non-targeted audience who can become offended by the way you advertise, or even the product your advertising. The key is to have a larger target audience, or at least have a successful ad campaign that draws more attention from your target audience that the non-target audience. 

After doing some research I was amazed at how many ads Carl's Jr had out that used this same approach. Some are more revealing than others and some less, but nonetheless it seems to be their angle of attack. It also seems that people are angry at how Carl's Jr makes it seem like the character in the commercial is sexually aroused by their food, or even having sex with their food! Then you have the individuals who say the commercial is outstanding, and that they now need to come out with a burger that backs that up! I had to try one, but my motivation wasn’t because the two sexy women, but merely because I’m a sucker for BBQ sauce! I would recommend their hamburger, at least to try it once, but I feel that it does lack some pizazz that their posters advertise.

Ultimately I have learned that there is much more to what we would think are simple advertisements that utilize famous people. The message they send is much more than the product their using. It makes us almost want to be them! I also never realized how many sex appeal ads Carl's Jr had. I think that their ads are catchy, they focus on what we desire even though some of the commercials are unrealistic, and in the end they are successful because they keep coming out with more. You can just about bet money on the fact their next commercial will contain some model eating some crazy good hamburger while making a mess…