For many (like myself) Super Bowl advertisements are as much a draw as the actual football game. In the 2010s, the burger chain Carl’s Jr. notoriously released a series of hypersexualized advertisements that drew attention to the fast-food franchise for all the wrong reasons. While the “plot” varied from ad to ad, most featured very scantily-clad, white models writhing around and sensually biting into burgers. Interestingly, many advertisements also played into a kind of Americana fantasy, with Kate Upton styled in pin-up fashion at a drive-in movie in one ad, and Hannah Ferguson and Paris Hilton wearing western-inspired bikinis and washing a muddy truck in another, playing homage to the restaurant’s Texas roots.
The 2012 commercial with Kate Upton advertises the restaurant’s jalapeno “patty melt” and features Upton sitting in a convertible car by herself and eating the burger in an incredibly sexual manner, The commercial switches between zoomed-in shots of Upton, a popular sex symbol of the 2010s, biting into the burger, untying her hair, and throwing her head back in ecstasy. She is also pictured sweating and fanning herself, with several close-up shots of perspiration on her cleavage, supposedly to advertise how “spicy” the burger is, with its “pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, and Santa Fe sauce.” Upton is also provocatively pictured straddling the takeout bag while eating the burger, mouth agape and squirming, revealing her lingerie, and meant to look like she is in the middle of a sex act. A young man in a neighboring car, presumably on a date with his girlfriend, stares at Upton in awe, before his girlfriend turns his head back toward the movie screen. To me, this advertisement was very reminiscent of Sandy’s character arc in Grease, from a modest, girl-next-door, to provocative bombshell. This interaction characterizes Upton as a spectacle for male consumption, as she is clearly putting on a performance targeted toward the male gaze.
Hannah Ferguson/Paris Hilton Ad
Another 2014 commercial features model Hannah Ferguson and socialite Paris Hilton sensually washing a dirty truck while somehow simultaneously eating a “Texas BBQ Thickburger.” The majority of the commercial shows Ferguson pouring sudsy water on herself and posing around and on top of the truck, interspersed with slow-motion shots of her mouth biting into the burger. When Paris Hilton enters the scene at the end of the commercial, she makes a suggestive comment about Ferguson “missing a spot” while cleaning, before dramatically taking a bite of the jalapeno fry that had fallen out of the burger and onto the hood of the truck. The rock-and-roll music and cheesy airbrushed, slow-motion editing of the commercial posits the model’s bodies as the focal point, asserting that they, like the burger, are a commodity.
In both advertisements, the models are acting out a heteronormative male fantasy. The commercials are purposefully outrageous and unrealistic, starting with the ridiculous notion that supermodels choose to eat double-bacon cheeseburgers from Carl’s Jr. These women are meant to represent the epitome of female beauty, one that can only be attained through extreme restriction and surgical enhancement, yet behave like “one of the guys,” acting interested in cars and indulging in burgers and beer. The commercials are intentionally provocative, bordering on pornographic, which stands in stark contrast to the product Carl’s Jr. is advertising. There is no existing connection between cheeseburgers and washing cars in lingerie, for example, so the choice to situate the advertisement in this context clearly revolves around the sex appeal of these women’s bodies.
The efficacy of these ads relies completely upon their titillating nature and the sex appeal of the models they exploit. The reason why these ads garnered such attention is because they were so explicit, yet surrounded the advertisement of an objectively unsexy subject: a sandwich. Had a fat, or stereotypically “unattractive” woman been the covergirl of the Carl’s Jr. ad campaign, the advertisements would have had the opposite effect, furthering the stereotypical association between fast food, obesity, and poverty. However, by associating the burgers with iconic sex symbols of the 2010s, Carl’s Jr. projected the image that a) if you eat their burgers you are sexy b) if you engage with their product you will encounter sexy women. The burger is an essential icon of America, and Carl’s Jr. played into this fantasy by unrealistically associating their burger with some of the most conventionally attractive popular figures of the era. Ultimately, these commercials perpetuated an unrealistic depiction of beauty and reinforced the idea that women are most attractive when appealing to the male gaze.
I could not tell you the amount of times I have seen food/other television ads that portray women in similar ways to those mentioned above. However, the fact that I never realized/remembered this until reading your blog post demonstrates just how common these media portrayals are and how deeply rooted this issue is. Similar to fat-phobia and diet culture, the mass media portrays women in ways that further an agenda and economic gain. By portraying women in this way, one could argue that these ads further objectify women and normalize dangerous attitudes. These images could also result in women viewers having lowered self-esteem. One thing I would like to know is these model’s perspective on appearing in these commercials. Could they in some way find it empowering to be televised to millions during the superbowl?
Thanks for this great post! This was the first time I have seen these ads and I was genuinely shocked. Although sexualization in advertisements is very common, I typically think of it as more discrete than the manner it is shown in these advertisements. The directors of the commercials were deliberate about the manner in which the commercial was shot and there was more time spent examining the bodies of the models than the actual product they were selling. I kept thinking of small children watching the super bowl with their families and being exposed to this manner of content. They perpetuate a very specific ideal apperance (blond, tall, and thin) while also sexualizing an everyday act. I would like to this commercials have improved from these old videos. I can’t think of any modern day examples that are this extreme.
I am honestly horrified by these ads, but they are not the only videos I have watched recently that depict women this way to sell something. I recently have been watching early 2000s movies and tv shows, so many of which include degrading depictions of women, jokes, and even the strange homage to the American Dream. I know that in today’s world we really have not gotten much better, but I will say that I was astounded by the jokes and references that were once allowed for public viewing. It is no wonder our generation, like many before, have incredibly high rates of disordered eating in women and unrealistic expectations for ourselves. I hope that we stop allowing commercials like this and recognize there has to be a way to sell a burger that doesn’t require making people think about sex with supermodels, we can do better.
I really enjoyed reading your post about these ads. It shocks me that I have seen ads of this style and manor throughout my whole life, and seen how normalized it is. My family and I like to watch the superbowl every year, and from a young age, I remember these types of ads coming on the screen and my parents would tell me to “look away”. Look away from a Carl’s Junior ad? Sorry what? I think it is horrifying that women are used as sex objects to sell things that don’t remotely have to do with the woman in the ad or sex, and that this has gone on for so so long. Not only is it the problem of women being used as sex objects to sell things, but there is also the issues of portraying women that set incredibly unrealistic body expectations, or expectations that a woman has to dress a certain way to gets a man’s attention, or act in a certain type of “sexy” way. These are all underlying messages that commercials like these portray, and I truly hope these ads will stop getting so much attention and stop being reproduced.
This was really insightful! I don’t have Carl Jr’s near me so I have never seen these ads before. Unfortunately, I have seen similar ads. It’s concerning, and feels almost exploitative when corporations who are looking to market to men use women’s bodies as a way to maximize profits. Additionally, men might be the targeted audience, but not only men are exposed to these ads. Women and girls who see these are being taught that the women who are like those depicted in the ads: skinny and blonde; are the women that men truly want. I’d like to think that these types of ads are more of an early 2000s thing, but even if the over-sexualization of womens body has completely ended (it hasnt) the damage of these ads still remains present.
This is a great post that draws attention to a large problem in our society that has been so normalized. We are used to the idea that “sex sells” and that companies will use sexuality to sell their products that have nothing to do with sex. They also cater entirely to the male gaze, and they work off of beauty standards that glorify whiteness and thinness. I think it is important for us to consider how this impact young people growing up. Young kids see these ads (especially because they are used during events such as the super bowl) and grow up thinking that this objectification of female bodies is normal and okay, and that only thin white bodies are beautiful. In the end, ads like this are so harmful to everyone, and I hope that we as a society recognize this and put this type of marketing in the past.
When I watch these kinds of ads, I always find myself laughing at how ridiculous these male gaze driven fantasies are. It makes me wonder if anyone actually buys products that are advertised in such a way, but judging by the fact that these ads still get made, I suppose they must work. These ads also disturb me because of the way they link food, sex, and economic as well as physical consumption in the minds of viewers. If women are discouraged from eating more than men in society, especially with images of women like these, they are receiving conflicting messages. They cannot indulge in food the way these women do (though the indulgence is clearly played up). As others have said, the linking of food and sex also contributes to the message that women are for men’s consumption.