June 25, 2009

Burger King, Carl’s Jr. Remind Us: Burgers = Sex, Duh

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Two sexy burger ad revelations today. First, the burger-as-blow-job Burger King ad burst onto the scene, second, The Hills’ Audrina Partridge becomes the latest scantily clad lady to make love to, I mean, to lustily eat a Carl’s Jr. burger. In the ad, that started airing today, Partridge pretends to eat a ginormous pineapple burger while lying on a beach in a bikini, alternately resting the burger on her toned tummy. The tagline: “More than just a piece of meat.” The ad sends exactly the opposite message of course. Partridge, just like Paris Hilton and Padma Lakshmi before her, has every right to chow down on this burger, but to suggest they all do so on the regular is just silly. To make women envious, and men horny, well, that’s advertising for you.

The fine-print on this choice Burger King ad:

“Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled with the NEW BK SUPER SEVEN INCHER. Yearn for more after you taste the mind-blowing burger that comes with a single beef patty, topped with American cheese, crispy onions and the A1 Thick and Hearty Steak Sauce.”

A1 should be embarrassed and ashamed. Or else totally peeved that they didn’t think of fashioning their 8-inch tall bottle as a phallic tower of manhood. Thick and Hearty? An explosion of flavor? The pieces were all right there!

But will BJ’s BK’s ad backfire? That 18-34 demographic of burger-loving, frat boys and ex-frat boys who swill beer with their buds and play touch football, but are also hopelessly homophobic, how will they feel “blowing their mind” on this 7-incher? I predict men will be wary of the order even, lest the cashier, who probably only gets the lowly Whopper Jr. on her break, think they likes the beef, if you know what I mean.

In all seriousness, the BK ad is pretty gross, but perhaps a bigger deal than degrading ads is that these burgers are really, really bad for us, and for the planet. Surprise surprise, it was only a matter of time before ads became less subliminally sexist and shallow, and more overtly so. Sex sells, we know this, and Carl’s Jr. and Burger King are spelling it out in all caps, using people who don’t eat their burgers, and outrageous ads that will have the worldwide web achatter about its sexual innuendo, not about its saturated fat and calories (BK doesn’t yet list the 7-incher’s nutritional profile yet but its Double Whopper with cheese has 1,010 calories and 24 grams of saturated fat, 66 grams total).

And since Burger King is going racy and explicit in targeting sex-crazed burger eaters, maybe they could unstraddle that fence they’re riding with their homepage web promotion touting their commitment to kids, healthy meals, and active lifestyles. “Hey parents!” it exclaims. Hey parents is right.

 

 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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