Pro-Family Group Targets Restaurant Chain Over Ad Featuring Porn Icon Hefner

Agape Press ^ | 11/10/03 | Jody Brown

[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.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

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.

Oh. Well. When you put it that way...I guess it makes it alright then.

[gingerky]

I got a $100 phone bill for a 1-900 number where my then 14 year old had dialed up a porn website. The longer you stayed on the more the girl promised to do. I scared him good - no internet for a long time, volunteering at a local charity, big speech about the poor girls who end up doing that stuff, and a big scare about how was he ever going to pay the bill (I had him convinced he might go to juvie!)

I also found out he had been to "bigtitties.com". The first words out of my friends mouth were, "well just be glad he's not gay".

I have blocked MTV. It's pure garbage. My kids watch Fuse (I think that's the name) for videos. They don't have the idiotic programming MTV does. MTV should be ashamed of itself.

I do let them watch The Simpsons and sometimes I let the oldest (he's fifteen now) watch South Park. It's funny and they hold nothing back.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Wow. I must admit. That is one helluva...ahem...burger.

[pollywog]

Hugh Hefner is a great American.

Oh puke.

double PUKE!!!!!!

[Antoninus]

I would like to have the babes Heffner has. Get over it...

Bet you'd like to have his VD as well.

[pollywog]

Thanks for the info. I have seen the ad, and will be contacting Carl's Jr. expressing my disgust, YES, DISGUST for all you playboy advocates!!!!!!!

[Moleman]

I concur with you husband, I don't think the new show is ver good.

[Moleman]

Bet you'd like to have his VD as well
Well, no~ But it might be a fair trade-off :-)

[Modernman]

At my age, a good burger is almost as good as anything else

LOL! Is that what the future holds? Better have my fun while I still can.

[usadave]

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."

Does this mean that Hefner is bisexual because he enjoys "variety" in regard to sexual partners?

[SouthernFreebird]

I Anthony Hopkins won't be doing comercials for Chik-fil-A.

[concerned about politics]

I do let them watch The Simpsons and sometimes I let the oldest (he's fifteen now) watch South Park. It's funny and they hold nothing back.

At least South Park has a good moral at the end of the story. LOL.
I let my 14 year old watch it. It refer to it as "Current events" education.

[SouthernFreebird]

Actually I hope Anthony Hopkins won't be doing comercials for Ckik-fil-A..... ;)

[Oatka]

Maybe they're just trying to tell us that their food is equally tasteless.

Great line! My wife grumbled about that ad over breakfast. I told her it was probably aimed at the 20-somethings crowd as I remembered how stupid and tasteless I was at that age.

The religious guy threw the Purple Prose around, but he did have a point. Where do you draw the line? As far as the girl on the mechanical bull simulating sexual moves goes, what's next? That's a pretty hard act to follow. Hey, I know - the real thing with a real bull.

I can't wait to see what they'll do with Larry Flint.

[Antoninus]

The ads are in poor taste, but Hugh Hefner is a great American.

Hef is a shallow, sex-obsessed old lecher. I see you've bought into the Hollywierd version of America where smut peddlers are great citizens persecuted for their invincible right to "free speech." I'm sure the Founding Fathers would have agreed that T&A shots are the moral equivalent of free speech.

And now, for no particular reason, points 24-26 of the "Current Communist Goals." Enjoy!

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

Baaaaa, baaaa, baaaaa. Such good little sheep!

[MineralMan]

"Thanks for the info. I have seen the ad, and will be contacting Carl's Jr. expressing my disgust, YES, DISGUST for all you playboy advocates!!!!!!!"

Well, I think you should do just that. One hint, though: leave off all the exclamation points in your email to Carl's Jr. Maybe the ALL CAPS words, too. But, by all means, you should exercize your right to complain.

The rest of us will have a burger and watch the video.

[Gritty]

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

You obviously never read the early "Playboy Philosophy" articles, which ran for years and preached licentiousness and consequences-free sexual license. These became bedrock values for a lot of impressionable young men, leading directly to the radical excesses of the '60s.

Playboy Magazine was more than just a skin magazine. It was a cultural phenomenon in the somewhat morally straight and innocent environment of the pre-Vietnam '50s and '60s which led "The Revolution", albeit in a soft-porn and highly hedonistic way.

Hefner has a lot more to apologize to America about than merely corrupting the publishing airwaves with airbrushed babes. His "sexual revolution" has borne a lot of bitter fruit. He led the fight against general morality and decency in America, the results of which we see daily.

[Spiff]

I just chalked it up as another indicator that porn is being mainstreamed. For me, it will be a reason to avoid Carl's Jr.

[Sir_Ed]

I agree with this story. I already called Carl's Jr. up and told them I thought the ad was disgusting.

I refuse to patronize a store that hires a pornographer as its spokesman.

What's next, they hire Larry Flynt? Monica Lewinsky? Gee, Lewinsky could rattle a series of double entendres like Hugh's girlfriend's do "Sometime Hugh wants a different one, sometimes he wants more than one!" Lewinsky could say "I LOVE putting it into my mouth!"

Sheesh, hiring a pornographer to do their TV ads...it's disgusting.

Ed

[Antoninus]

Does this mean that Hefner is bisexual because he enjoys "variety" in regard to sexual partners?

I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that Hef is an omnisexual--and that includes non-humans and inanimate objects.