Carl’s Jr. Super Bowl ad brings back bikini-clad burger models after yearslong clampdown
Carl’s Jr. is bringing back its bikini-clad burger models just in time for the Super Bowl.
TikTok influencer Alix Earle stars in a new commercial from Carl’s Jr. promoting its new “hangover burger” for football fans needing a pick-me-up after game day.
“Just what you need to cure that post party bug,” Earle says, dressed in a skimpy outfit as she parades through a car wash and takes a bite of the super-loaded breakfast burger.
The Super Bowl-themed ad comes about eight years after the fast-food chain vowed to end its sexualized campaigns, which included partnerships with Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian.
The brand’s return to racy advertising comes as major companies have been dismantling their diversity programs, following President Trump’s call for “merit-based” policies.
“I think it does reflect a shift in how the country is feeling,” Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing and associate chair of the marketing department at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, told The Wall Street Journal.
“Clearly with the new administration…what is acceptable conduct is changing, and I think you’re seeing Carl’s Jr. jump right on that trend as one of the first brands that’s really pushing the edge on things like this,” he added.
The ad almost certainly wouldn’t have run several years ago, when gender equality and diversity were larger focuses in American mainstream culture, Calkins told the Journal.
In the commercial, a scantily-clad Earle walks through a car wash that appears littered with inebriated game-goers — a nod to the Carl’s Jr. 2005 commercial that showed Paris Hilton at a car wash.
It’s a bid to win over web-oriented Gen Zers – who could order more Carl’s Jr. burgers online – with nostalgia and humor, Jennifer Tate, chief marketing officer at parent company CKE Restaurants, which also owns Hardee’s, told the Journal.
The game-day themed commercial will run on traditional and streaming television — though it won’t be aired in-game, so Carl’s Jr. can skip out on the multimillion-dollar check required for a 30-second Super Bowl slot and instead lean on social media.
Earle, who has racked up over 7 million followers by sharing her party girl lifestyle on TikTok and hosts her own “Hot Mess” podcast, shared the ad with her followers on Wednesday.
“This is the new world with new rules and new rulers. Alix Earle is a social media empress,” Tate told the Journal. “Carl’s Jr. is having so much fun doing things other brands are too timid to do.”
Carl’s Jr. started shifting away from its signature racy commercials in 2017, citing a desire to focus on food quality.
“Since premiering our now iconic ad starring Paris Hilton 12 years ago, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s have become synonymous with two things: bikinis and burgers,” Brad Haley, then CKE Restaurant’s chief marketing officer, said in a press release that year.
That image made it difficult for Carl’s Jr. to spotlight its menu, Haley said.
Andy Puzder, former CKE Restaurants chief executive, had defended the trademark commercials just a few weeks prior.
“I think that any grocery store you go into, or drug stores, you’re going to see on magazine covers things that are more revealing than you saw in many of our ads,” Puzder told Fox Business. “We saved the company with those ads, we saved a lot of jobs.”
He abruptly resigned from the helm at Carl’s Jr. the same month the marketing changes were announced, and just weeks after he had withdrawn as President Trump’s first-term labor secretary.
The fast-food chain had for years held steadfast to its spirited campaign strategy – defending it in a 2011 press release that CKE Restaurants has since taken down from its site.
“We believe in putting hot models in our commercials, because ugly ones don’t sell burgers,” the release read, according to the Journal. “That’s just the way it is.”
Carl’s Jr. is also bringing back its free burger promotion from last year, offering the deal to loyalty program members the day after the Super Bowl.
The company will track sign-ups, online sales and brick-and-mortar foot traffic to measure the success of the promotion, Tate told the Journal.
