Voting Station

Carl's Jr. (Fast Food Chain)

Please vote to return to collections.

Corporation

The Resume

    (1941- )
    American-based fast-food restaurant chain
    Mainly operating in the Western and Southwestern region of the US
    Founded by Carl and Margaret Karcher
    Headquartered out of Carpinteria, California
    Original location began as Carl's Drive-In Barbeque
    Restaurant was renamed Carl's Jr., in 1954, following Carl Karcher's decision to expand into a chain of smaller restaurants with more limited menus
    Corporate parent company, Carl Karcher Enterprises (CKE) Restaurants Inc., purchased the Hardee's chain, and began merging the two chains, in 1997 (four years after Karcher was ousted as CEO by the board of directors in 1993)
    Famous for airing ads during the Super Bowl, usually featuring well-endowed, scantily clad models/actresses suggestively biting into their promotional burgers
    Featured models in assorted Carl's Jr. commercials included Kate Upton, Kim Kardashian, Katherine Webb, Sara Sampaio, Emily Ratajkowski, Sara Jean Underwood, Hannah Ferguson, Heidi Klum and Padma Lakshmi
    As of 2016, has more than 1,000 locations in 13 U.S. states, Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand and Russia

Why Carl's Jr. (Fast Food Chain) might be annoying:

    What's with the skinny bikini clad babes munching on fatty burger commercials...?
    Its corporate logo/mascot is unoriginal (a bright yellow five-pointed 'Happy Star').
    Their company slogan: 'Eat like you mean it' (who knew - all this time we weren't!)
    It is yet one more brand name to utilize bizarre punctuation.
    The spelling comes from the owner's decision to open a number of smaller 'Carl’s Drive-In Barbeque' restaurants in the 1950s (hence the 'Jr.').
    They air sexually suggestive ads promoting their meat sandwiches during an televised event generally designated for families, the Super Bowl, and then act shocked when liberal feminists/conservative family groups object.
    CKE and associates was accused of insider trading by the SEC; in 1988, Carl Karcher agreed to a settlement, paying more than half a million dollars in legal fines.
    They unveiled the 'If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face' campaign in the mid-1990s, mostly showing kids eating CJ burgers with ketchup and juice dripping from their mouths onto their clothes and shoes.
    From 2005 onward, its advertising took on a more risqué marketing tone which Karcher reportedly disapproved of. This was around the same time their ads were merged with its CKE partner, Hardee's (with commercials airing under either the Carl's or Hardee's moniker).
    Trash-talking wide receiver, and one-time Philadelphia Eagle, Terrell 'TO' Owens shot a self-pitying Carl's Jr. Philly Cheesesteak Burger ad in 2013 ('I get all the love - and hold the hate!')
    The original 'Carl's Jr. babe' was Paris Hilton, who soaped up a Bentley with her half-naked body before taking a juicy bite out of their new Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger and uttering her signature catchphrase, 'that's hot.' The company's dethroned CEO was not amused.
    A Super Bowl XLIX commercial featuring a semi-nude Charlotte McKinney, strategically placed items obscuring her lady parts as part of the promotion for the 'All Natural Burger,' provoked outraged accusations of 'setting feminism back decades.' It also resulted in renewed calls for a boycott from the American Family Association who denounced it as 'exposure to pornography' (Jan. 2015).

Why Carl's Jr. (Fast Food Chain) might not be annoying:

    It began as a $326 investment in a hot dog cart.
    Mr. Karcher subsequently parlayed the hot dog business into a chain of 1,000 restaurants, worth over $100 million.
    Nation's Restaurant News rated Carl's Jr. as the #37 foodservice chain in the United States based on sales in the 2011 fiscal year (2012).
    QSR listed Carl's Jr. at #24, in its Top 50 National Restaurant Chains of 2013 (Hardee's at #20; according to its Wikipedia page, if the two were combined they would have been listed at #14).
    They paid nine popular YouTube personalities to promote their Portobello Mushroom '$6 Burger,' including iJustine, Smosh, and Nigahiga (2009).
    Charlotte McKinney defended the controversial 'All Natural' ad by claiming her grandfather liked it.
    Who cares if most of the Carl's Jr. poster girls probably wouldn't ever touch any 'grass fed beef' that pushed their calories intake past 300 a day? Those sirens could do commercials sinking their teeth into dry ice and make it look erotically mouth watering...
    They extended their 'doesn't belong in your face' campaign into a creative live-action-animated Dennis Rodman ad (back when he could endorse things without being derided as North Korea's bitch).
    They secured a tie-in with 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 3' in 2015, with promotional contests to win Black Ops 3 prizes, like custom in-game weapons camo (McKinney also returned to promote its #UltimateCarePackage, by complimenting the gamer on having such a 'nice package').

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 20 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 15 Votes: 73.33% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 14 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 45 Votes: 62.22% Annoying