Free Republic

"You're trying to go up and you're just going down," said protester Shantel Walker, 31, of Brooklyn who makes $7.25 working at a Papa John's in Manhattan. "All of us are in the same financial crunch. We're trying to take care of our families and our livelihood." The strikes mark the latest salvo in a nearly year-long battle to get not only higher wages but also an opportunity to unionize without facing retaliation from employers. . . . U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez told The Associated Press the strikes were a sign of the need to raise the minimum wage....

You voted, and this Hardee's ad was crowned the Funniest Commercial of 2009. Congratulations to our winner!

ST. LOUIS, Jul 13, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----Summer gets saucy this year with Hardee's(R) introduction of the new French Dip Thickburger(R). A perfect "pas de deux" of beef, the French Dip Thickburger is available at participating Hardee's beginning today and is a meaty combination of a 100% Black Angus Beef Thickburger patty topped with thinly sliced roast beef and melting Swiss cheese served with a cup of au jus for dipping. To celebrate this delicious new meat-on-meat creation, Hardee's is sending four gorgeous French Maids (Sophie, Antoinette, Gabrielle and Isabelle) to cruise the country on segways. These beauties may not...

A fast food chain’s racy new advertising campaign has left at least one teacher’s organization demanding it be pulled. The ad for St. Louis, Missouri-based Hardee’s Corporation features a sexy teacher, making provocative moves in front of the class while two students rap to a song called "Flat Buns,” according to a report on myFOXstl.com. "How irresponsible can you get?” said the Tennessee Education Association in a statement on their website. ”At this very moment, there are female teachers in high school classrooms with 30+ students who are working hard to teach our children so that they can compete in...

Hardee's Ad Angers Tennessee Teachers Chattanooga area Hardees decline to run the adRichard Simms September 5, 2007 - 5:32AM Hardees Ad Angers TeachersA new television ad for Hardee's Restaurants has angered representatives of the Tennessee Education Association. Hardees ad executives in Chattanooga declined to run the ad saying "we do our best to promote our products without offending customers. “How irresponsible can you get?" Those are the words of Tennessee Education Association President, Doctor Earl Wiman. Wiman is upset about a television ad showing a young teacher dancing on top of her desk while boys in the class rap about...

The parent company of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast food chains sued rival Jack In The Box Inc. on Friday to stop TV ads that it says suggest Carl's Jr. and Hardee's use cow anus to make Angus beef hamburgers. CKE Restaurants Inc. sued Jack In The Box in U.S. District Court on Friday over an ad in which executives laugh hysterically at the word "Angus" and another where the chain's pingpong ball-headed mascot, Jack, is asked to point to a diagram of a cow and show where Angus meat comes from. "I'd rather not," the pointy-nosed Jack replies....

(AP) ST. LOUIS -- In the past few months, McDonald's Corp. announced it would push healthy meals like salads while Wendy's International Inc. said it would fry foods in a healthier oil with less trans fats. And CKE Restaurants Inc.? The operator of Hardee's and Carl's Jr. unveiled a jumbo-sized cheeseburger smothered in sliced steak. "I think the health craze is happening mostly among journalists," said Andrew Puzder, CKE's president and chief executive. A lean man with an athletic build, Puzder laid out CKE's decidedly un-health-conscious business strategy during the company's annual shareholders meeting Tuesday in St. Louis. The key...

Stock analyst's threats result in prison Associated Press ST. LOUIS - A Wyoming man was sentenced to a year and nine months in prison Tuesday after admitting he threatened to publish negative stock reports about the Hardee's fast-food chain's parent company if he wasn't hired as a consultant.

The hottest new hamburger at Hardee's is an unabashedly unhealthful mountain of meat called the Monster Thickburger. Loaded with two 1/3-pound Angus beef patties, four strips of bacon and three slices of cheese, slathered with a generous glob of mayonnaise and encased in a buttered bun, it's not exactly a celebration of calorie counting. Who's counting? When the 1,420-calorie, 107-fat-gram behemoth was unleashed, people gobbled it up. "Sales results for this politically incorrect burger have been encouraging," Andrew Puzder, chief executive of Hardee's parent CKE Restaurants Inc., told Wall Street analysts after the big burger's introduction in mid- November. On...

Earlier this year the Food and Drug Administration's Obesity Working Group issued its "Calories Count" report urging the FDA to work with restaurants to disclose the number of calories in the products they sell," according to an editorial in today's Wall Street Journal. "But that's not good enough for some grinches in Congress. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin (D) and Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D) plan to re-introduce bills requiring chain restaurants with more than 20 outlets to list calorie counts either on menu boards or printed menus." In "Government Gets Fat Fighting Obesity," Cato policy analyst Radley Balko writes: "The...

I just love this story. "The parent of the Carl's, Jr...." I've got to tell you a little story. When I first moved to Sacramento back in 1984 I took the southern route when I drove out there from Kansas City. People said, because I was going in October, "Yeah you want to take the southern route because you go the northern route you get snow. You don't want to go I-80 and all that because if you go out to the Sierra you might get snow, so take the southern route. Go into New Mexico and Arizona and southern...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The parent of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's burger chains is cashing in on consumer backlash against healthier fast-food fare with new premium burgers that make Big Macs look like rabbit food. While many of its competitors have downplayed traditional burgers in the last two years while scrambling to add lower-fat salads and grilled chicken offerings to their menus, CKE Restaurants Inc. has taken a different approach. Carl's Jr. on Wednesday introduced the Breakfast Burger, a hamburger topped with a fried egg, hash browns, bacon and cheese, that weighs in at 830 calories and 46 grams...

Hardee's Monster Burger Creates Uproar Tue Dec 7, 8:03 AM ET By JIM SUHR, AP Business Writer ST. LOUIS - At 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat, Hardee's Monster Thickburger couldn't escape notice in these diet-conscious times. Or the jabs of late-night talk show hosts. AP Photo Just a day after the Monster's rollout Nov. 15, Jay Leno quipped on "The Tonight Show" that the megaburger "actually comes in a little cardboard box shaped like a coffin." On David Letterman's "Late Show," an actor playing the chief of Hardee's corporate parent, CKE Restaurants Inc., in a sketch clutched his...

Forget thin. Hardee's introduces new mega-calorie Monster Thickburger By JIM SALTER AP Business Writer Published on: 11/15/04 ST. LOUIS — As many fast-food chains introduce healthier fare amid fears of being sued, Hardee's is introducing a hamburger with 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat. St. Louis-based Hardee's Food Systems Inc. on Monday rolled out its Monster Thickburger — two 1/3-pound slabs of Angus beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame seed bun. The sandwich alone sells for $5.49, $7.09 with fries and a soda. The introduction comes at a time when...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — As many fast-food chains are catering to the health-conscious, Hardee's is introducing the biggest and thickest of its Thickburgers — one with enough calories to make Ronald McDonald blush. The Moster Thickburger has 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat. Hardee's The chain on Monday rolled out its Monster Thickburger — two 1/3-pound slabs of Angus beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame seed bun. The sandwich alone sells for $5.49, $7.09 with fries and a soda. Even a news release touted the Monster — at 1,420 calories...

Has everyone seen the new hardee's commercial with the girl riding the mechanical bull while eating a "thickburger"? What do you think? Is it too sexy for a fast food commercial?

A pro-family group is taking issue with a national fast-food chain for featuring pornographer Hugh Hefner and his Playboy "Bunnies" on a new television commercial. Last week, CKE Restaurants -- parent company of Hardee's and Carl's Jr. establishments -- defended a sexually provocative TV commercial for Carl's Jr. by saying it was designed to target young men. The ad shows a model simulating sexual moves while riding a mechanical bull. Apparently believing that sexual fantasy is somehow related to the decision process one goes through before ordering a hamburger, this week the corporation released another Carl's Jr. commercial, this one...