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Pro-Family Group Targets Restaurant Chain Over Ad Featuring Porn Icon Hefner
Agape Press ^ | 11/10/03 | Jody Brown

Posted on 11/10/2003 9:29:45 AM PST by truthandlife

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 starring Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and several Playboy "bunnies."

A CKE press release says the theme of the ad campaign highlighting a new line of burgers is "variety" -- and that the ads "humorously allude to Hefner's enjoyment of variety." The title of the CKE press release? "Because Some Guys Don't Want the Same Thing Day After Day."

"Who better to deliver the message of variety than Hugh Hefner?" asks CKE president and CEO Andy Puzder in the statement. "We're appealing to an audience of young, hungry guys who expect a quality product but want to have something different from time to time." Hefner, he says, appeals to the chain's target audience and "credibly communicates our message of variety."

It was the issue of Hefner's involvement and so-called "credibility" that prompted Dr. Don Wildmon, founder and chairman of the American Family Association, to alert members of OneMillionDads.com and OneMillionMoms.com to the anti-family message of the ad campaign.

"I hope you are disturbed about this as much as I am," Wildmon tells members of the online activist groups. "Hugh Hefner made his fortune by exploiting women as mere sex objects and tempting men to cheat on their wives. And we'll never know how many millions of little boys have been negatively influenced by Hefner's porn magazines."

The pro-family leader encourages the activist groups to join in what he calls "an all-out contact blitz" -- via e-mail, telephone, and conversations with local owners and managers -- against both Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants. He also asks them to consider not eating at the restaurants right now, because by doing so they are "supporting the company's obsession with advancing pornography's foremost mouthpiece as a legitimate and acceptable spokesman."

"We need to let them know we are fed up with their attack on family values," Wildmon says.

One may wonder why Hefner agreed to be the centerpiece of a major TV ad campaign for the first time in his 50 years as a purveyor of porn. The answer may lie in the CKE press release, in which Hefner admits to being a hamburger lover and seeing it as a "good business opportunity since we share a similar target audience -- namely, guys."

CKE Restaurants operates in 44 states and 14 countries under the names of Carl's Jr., Hardee's, and La Salsa Fresh Mexican Grills.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: burgers; california; carljr; carlsjr; ckerestaurants; cyberburger; fastfood; hamburgers; hardees; hefner; minimumwage; perversion; porn; tennessee
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To: truthandlife
Hugh Hefner has probably done more to prostitute women than any other person alive. Of course, one of the effects of steadily declining standards and a lowered bar, is that he now, in his dotage, appears relatively innocuous compared to the purveyors of sleeze and filth who currently pollute minds and hearts.

Porn is now mainstream, as evidenced by many of the replies on this thread. It's considered "healthy". However, there was a time when sanity prevailed and we recognized the connection between porn and the treatment of women as mere pieces of meat to be used and abused for selfish ends. Hefner played a huge part in turning all that around.

Now, well into his 70s, he is the archetypal "dirty old man."

21 posted on 11/10/2003 9:56:00 AM PST by marshmallow
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To: proxy_user
Who better than Hef to promote HARDees? :-)
22 posted on 11/10/2003 9:57:42 AM PST by TheBigB (Check out my new pic at the FReeper Photo Album home page!)
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To: Blue Screen of Death
LOL.
23 posted on 11/10/2003 9:57:54 AM PST by concerned about politics ( As a rightous man declarith a thing, so shall it be.)
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To: proxy_user
Who better than Hef to promote HARDees? :-)
24 posted on 11/10/2003 9:58:00 AM PST by TheBigB (BigB is 33 today! Good? Bad? YOU make the call!)
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To: ppaul
I would like to have the babes Heffner has. Get over it...
25 posted on 11/10/2003 9:59:44 AM PST by Moleman
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To: Modernman
modern playboy is not the playboy of the 50's and 60's. This modern version is more like the Nowgang's PC version.
26 posted on 11/10/2003 10:00:16 AM PST by longtermmemmory
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To: Hildy
You puonished him for looking up girls in thongs? I hope you don't let him watch MTV any time of the day or most of primetime TV.

No. None of the kids are allowed watch that trash. They get limited TV. Sometimes, though, liberalism sneeks through on commercials anyway.

27 posted on 11/10/2003 10:00:45 AM PST by concerned about politics ( As a rightous man declarith a thing, so shall it be.)
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To: Baseballguy; truthandlife
Pictures PLEASE.

..Ditto that.. :))

28 posted on 11/10/2003 10:00:49 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (Just because you're paranoid,doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. :)
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To: wideminded
Hugh Hefner is a great American.

Oh puke.

29 posted on 11/10/2003 10:01:53 AM PST by concerned about politics ( As a rightous man declarith a thing, so shall it be.)
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To: Modernman
Also, I doubt that little boys looking at naked centerfolds leads to long-term psychological damage.
To quote The Man Show boy "I'm gonna ruin this magazine when I get home."
30 posted on 11/10/2003 10:02:31 AM PST by Moleman
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To: Baseballguy

31 posted on 11/10/2003 10:03:08 AM PST by Grit (No federal judicial nominee by the past 42 presidents has been filibustered in U.S.history)
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To: concerned about politics
We caught our 11 year old boy attempting to look up "Girls in thongs" on the net. He was grounded for life!! LOL, but we were happy his choice was on the right track

LOL! I don't have kids, but I think catching your son (or daughter, even) looking at Playboy is one of those things you should pretend you didn't see.

Anyway, your son doesn't have to look on the internet to see girls in thongs- he can get as much of that as he wants on the beach. The internet is a bit more dangerous, though- a Google search for "Girls in thongs" would pick up things a lot more risque than Playboy.

32 posted on 11/10/2003 10:03:23 AM PST by Modernman ("The law must be stable, but it must not stand still.")
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To: Grit
Watch online here

http://www.carlsjr.com/home/
33 posted on 11/10/2003 10:03:57 AM PST by Grit (No federal judicial nominee by the past 42 presidents has been filibustered in U.S.history)
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To: truthandlife
""I hope you are disturbed about this as much as I am," Wildmon tells members of the online activist groups. "Hugh Hefner made his fortune by exploiting women as mere sex objects and tempting men to cheat on their wives. And we'll never know how many millions of little boys have been negatively influenced by Hefner's porn magazines."

Methinks Wildmon has need of a life. I especially enjoyed the girl on the mechanical bull ad. Made me right hungry.
34 posted on 11/10/2003 10:06:01 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: Moleman
To quote The Man Show boy "I'm gonna ruin this magazine when I get home."

My husband used to watch that show. He'd laugh and laugh. Then, they changed actors and went too pro-gay. Now he thinks it's just stupid.

35 posted on 11/10/2003 10:06:15 AM PST by concerned about politics ( As a rightous man declarith a thing, so shall it be.)
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To: Dante3
If I were to make a list of sordid and repulsive individuals who preach harmful values then Hefner would be among them.

A magazine featuring soft-lit cheesecake shots and articles on the latest guy-gadgets preaches harmful values?

36 posted on 11/10/2003 10:06:17 AM PST by Modernman ("The law must be stable, but it must not stand still.")
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To: longtermmemmory
modern playboy is not the playboy of the 50's and 60's. This modern version is more like the Nowgang's PC version.

You mean in terms of pictures? The only real change from the 50's is the addition of full-frontal nudity. Other than that, Playboy hasn't really changed. Though, it is fun to look at my Dad's old playboys to see the change in what is considered the most attractive body type for women.

37 posted on 11/10/2003 10:09:55 AM PST by Modernman ("The law must be stable, but it must not stand still.")
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To: MineralMan
I especially enjoyed the girl on the mechanical bull ad. Made me right hungry.

For what? ;-)

38 posted on 11/10/2003 10:11:36 AM PST by Modernman ("The law must be stable, but it must not stand still.")
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To: Modernman
"I especially enjoyed the girl on the mechanical bull ad. Made me right hungry.

For what? ;-)"

Well...I couldn't get what I was hungry for, so I settled for a Whopper down at the BK. At my age, a good burger is almost as good as anything else. But...I certainly found the ad stimulating, you might say.
39 posted on 11/10/2003 10:14:26 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: All
I can't believe that Wildmon's group is unaware of Carl Karcher Enterprises contributions to the conservative movement. The man has given lots of money and support to pro-life candidates, has been the subject of boycotts by abortionists and homosexuals.

Is it hypocritcal for CKE to have bunnies in his ads or is Wildmon overreacting?

40 posted on 11/10/2003 10:14:46 AM PST by GSWarrior
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