Fast Food Campaigns Stir Controversy
by AFA Journal
September 14, 2005
(AgapePress) - Apparently Burger King thinks vulgarity sells hamburgers. At least that's the message that visitors to its "Coq Roq" website would assume."Coq Roq" is a fictional heavy metal band created by Burger King as an advertising gimmick to reach young people. The website has sample music -- with lyrics that promote Burger King's new chicken fries -- and brief biographies for the band's members.
As of July 26, according to AdAge.com, the site also contained photographs with captions that were obviously meant to be taken as sexual double entendres. One photo, for example, showed a group of young ladies who are apparently enthusiasts for Coq Roq, with the caption: "Groupies love Coq."
As word got out, the company removed the sexually-themed captions, although it claimed the changes were not made because of complaints.
The vulgar campaign follows on the heels of a similarly sexed-up ad push by CK Enterprises, which owns the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's hamburger chains. That company ran a TV ad containing "a bump-and-grind car wash by bad-girl heiress Paris Hilton," said USA Today. "In a sexy black swimsuit, she seductively washes down a Bentley and herself, working up an appetite for a Spicy BBQ sandwich."
A spokesman for the American Family Association wonders why fast-food chains are taking this approach in their advertising.
"What is it with these hamburger chains? Are they so desperate to pump up lagging sales that they're resorting to vulgarity and strip teases to gain attention?" asks AFA's director of special projects Randy Sharp, who has followed both ad campaigns. "It's like Carl's Jr., Hardee's and Burger King have perverted seventh-grade boys running their ad campaigns."
Carl's Jr. spokesman Brad Haley defended the Hilton ad against criticism, claiming, "This is exactly what [young guys] respond to."
Not so, according to Advertising Age. It said sales figures demonstrated that "[d]espite the whirlwind of publicity generated by its Paris Hilton ad, the controversial spot does not appear to have significantly increased Carl's Jr. restaurant sales."
This article appeared in the September 2005 issue of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
