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.

[MineralMan]

"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. "

And when was the last time you ate at Carl's Jr.? Somehow I doubt if you are their target demographic.

[Sir_Ed]

"Hugh Hefner is a great American."

Hugh Heffner has done more to destroy families in this country than any other person alive.

His pornographic magazine objectifies women as sex objects and thus depicts them as people one lusts after, instead of marries, settles down with, is faithful to and stays committed to.

His Playboy magazine ranks with the Miller decision and the I Am Curious Yellow decision as the start of the end of fidelity within American families in the West.

Ed

[Ruth A.]

I would like to have the babes Heffner has.

The only way you could have them is if you had Heffner's money, too.

[cherry]

"Also, I doubt that little boys looking at naked centerfolds leads to long-term psychological damage."

just for the record, is okay for little girls...say, your dtr if you have one.....to be looking at centerfolds of naked and well endowed men?

[SouthernFreebird]

just for the record, is okay for little girls...say, your dtr if you have one.....to be looking at centerfolds of naked and well endowed men?

Thats bound to lead to a disappointing life. lol

[concerned about politics]

Thats bound to lead to a disappointing life. lol

Yeh! That's why women have trouble with measurements. They've been lied to so many times. "That's what 9" looks like?"

[Modernman]

just for the record, is okay for little girls...say, your dtr if you have one.....to be looking at centerfolds of naked and well endowed men?

I don't see anything wrong with youthful curiousity. So, I wouldn't really have a problem with that, either.

[cherry]

you are so right....

it amazes me that some freepers can't see the connection between their lust for porn and the degrading of human life , culture, civilization etc...

a country consumed with porn can not get too riled up about abortion, pedophilia, rising STD's and AIDS..about grade school kids having oral sex in the back of the classroom or on the bus... .

there is a direct correlation IMO between expanding homosexual rights and the elimination of any sexual barriers that heterosexuals have upheld ......

we complain about the "gay agenda" and the "feminazi agenda" but we fail to see that when we say that we heterosexuals will have NO barriers, then there are no barriers to the gays and lesbians either....as well as to all pedophiles....

yes pedophiles...because NAMBLA and other pedophile groups are pushing to legitamize man-boy "love" and wanting child sex to be officially okayed, just like what has happened with homosexuality....

[cherry]

yes you would , and you know it...

anybody who came across two 8 year old girls in a closet looking at naked men would think they were "dirty"....

[MineralMan]

"anybody who came across two 8 year old girls in a closet looking at naked men would think they were "dirty"...."

I wouldn't think that at all. I'd think they had the typical curiosity of most kids and that they found an opportunity to satisfy that curiosity.

Now, the magazine they were looking at might be "dirty," but not the kids.

I'd remove the magazine, tell the girls that they really shouldn't be looking at such things, then try to find out how they obtained it. I wouldn't tell the girls they were "dirty."

Curiosity about what member of the opposite sex look like without clothing is not "dirty." It is just curiosity.

[Modernman]

anybody who came across two 8 year old girls in a closet looking at naked men would think they were "dirty"..

I admit that I would probably be taken aback, at first. However, I know that curiousity about the opposite sex is a natural thing. So, I don't think I'd flip out over it. The word 'dirty' isn't really how I'd characterize it.

[MineralMan]

"anybody who came across two 8 year old girls in a closet looking at naked men would think they were "dirty"...."

By the way, where did the "two 8 year old girls" come from? I don't remember anyone talking about such a situation. Is this something you encountered, yourself?

[Bernard Marx]

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.

Hefner was only a part (but a big part!) of the so-called sexual revolution that has given us such progressive wonders as partial-birth abortion, the "normalizing" of homosexuality, chlamydia and AIDS. The underlying cause was the perfection of a dependable birth-control pill that unleashed both male and female libidos in what they thought was a consequence-free orgy. It resulted in today's version of feminism that has left a lot of women in their 40s or 50s wondering how they missed out on real life: children, family, companionship and meaning. As the old saying goes, Lovin' Don't Last; Good Cookin' Do.

As for Carl's Jr.'s advertising, they lost me long ago when they began their trashy ad campaign with tasteless, mannerless gross-out eating scenes. I figured if that was the company's disgusting target clientele I'd be doing myself a favor by eating elsewhere. Hef and his "hoes" are an improvement. The cookin' at Carl's leaves something to be desired anyhow.

[wideminded]

"A great truth is a statement whose exact opposite is also a great truth." - Niels Bohr

Men were lusting after women long before Hugh Hefner came along in the 1950's. You just weren't allowed to talk about it - the 1950's were in some respects an age of hypocrisy. Things have gone much too far in the opposite direction now, but it's not all Hugh Hefner's fault.

[Modernman]

it amazes me that some freepers can't see the connection between their lust for porn and the degrading of human life , culture, civilization etc...

Ummm.... Miss November leads to abortion, AIDS, murder, the collapse of civilization as we know it?

Your argument seems to be that Playboy opens the door to a lot of really bad things. Well, that might be true for messed up individuals. However, for most men (and the 30% or so of Playboy's readership that is female), naked women are nothing more than naked women.

[Sir_Ed]

"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?"

The pig (Hefner) lives and sleeps with seven "girlfriends."

There's been numerous articles about how all seven prostitutes share Hef's bed, Hefner and each other.

The man is a pig, and when he reaches the end of his life, he'll have the shattered remnants of American society to look back upon, and know that he played a major part in the whole mess...

Ed

[MineralMan]

"The man is a pig, and when he reaches the end of his life, he'll have the shattered remnants of American society to look back upon, and know that he played a major part in the whole mess...
"

Oh, piffle! Playboy and Hugh Hefner are not the cause of this society's problems. Playboy isn't even pornography, and if you think it is, you've never seen real pornography.

It's a funny ad, frankly. It appeals directly to the 20-something male audience it's aimed at, most of whom wish they had Hefner's little stable of women. So, it will sell hamburgers, I suppose. It won't cause the end of society.

Harping on small things like this diminishes the real battle, and makes people not listen to those who go overboard on silly issues.

[Sir_Ed]

"And when was the last time you ate at Carl's Jr.? Somehow I doubt if you are their target demographic."

Well, unfortunately I am WAY too conversant with their store...I prolly eat fast food four times a week, and can readily discuss the merits of Famous Star Cheeseburgers and Dave Thomas' Quarter Pounder with Cheese versus Whopper's Jr and Regular and will oft reminisce on the best fast-food cheeseburger extant...the McDLT, until the eco-nazi's forced McD's to get rid of it, as it used styrofoam.

Nah, I used to buy their Famous Star all the time, but no more...I will not step foot into a single Carl's Jr., ever, until they stop using a pornographer as their spokespig.

Ed

[MineralMan]

"Nah, I used to buy their Famous Star all the time, but no more...I will not step foot into a single Carl's Jr., ever, until they stop using a pornographer as their spokespig.
"

Your choice. More room for the 20-somethings they're trying to attract with these ads.

[mhking]

I saw the ad. [shrug] It's no worse than other stuff on TV.

Where was the uproar over that 'Raised By Wolves' ad from Quizno's with the man suckling from a mother wolf (complete with wolf cubs)?

Now that was disturbing...

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...