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Target Women: Carl’s Jr

Cara

See, I was so behind on posting Target Women videos that it’s time for another one already!  We don’t have Carl Jr where I live, so I’d only ever seen the “steak dinner” ad before.  And whoa.  I agree, that is some supreme douchebaggery.


(Click here if you can’t view the embedded video.)

This Target Women is kind of more of a rant than a series of jokes. But you know what? I’m kind of completely and totally in love with it.

40 thoughts on Target Women: Carl’s Jr

  2. Just yesterday, I was telling a friend that I won’t eat at Carl’s Jr. because their ads are so damn sexist.

  4. I was all on board until we got to the end and the “hauling your fat ass!” around bit. Sure, Carl’s Jr burgers are hideously bad for you (they’ve got at least 5 burgers on the menu that are approximately a thousand calories and which contain close to the daily total amount of recommended sodium), so they will wreak havoc on your body. But the tone of the last little bit of the rant really rubbed me the wrong way.

  5. What evil_fizz said, and I have trouble with the whole “douche/douchbag” trope. Something about it seem akin to using “girls” and “girly” as insults aimed at men. The most foul thing on earth is something that touches a vagina?

    Wait, isn’t the thing that touches a vagina called a “penis”? I’m confused.

    Anyway, think that qualifies as nit-picking. The “fat ass” is a more significant problem for me. This is the first Sarah Haskins vid I haven’t adored without reservations, and 99% of it is right on target, even so.

  8. Yeah, I still standby “douche” on the grounds that douches are gross, not because they touch vaginas, but because they construe vaginas as dirty and unclean, and actually really fuck up vaginas. (How I wish I knew this when I was like 17/18.) Making women think that their genitals are dirty and smelly is gross, and . . . well, douchey. Haha. I have nothing but love for vaginas, and nothing but disdain for douching products.

    I know that many feminists don’t agree, but there you go, all the same. 🙂

  10. The most foul thing on earth is something that touches a vagina?

    Considering the bad rap douching gets in women’s health circles, I’ve always thought of it as douches = icky things which are bad for you, so DON’T LET IT ANYWHERE NEAR YOUR VAGINA! And thus calling someone a douche (and variants) isn’t shaming via feminization at all but a convenient name for the category of “things we don’t want near our special yoni place”.

    Not to mention that my hand often touches my vagina, and I like my hand quite a bit and never call annoying assholes “you fucking RIGHT HAND!” Same goes for the word “underpants”, and anything else normal/positive which comes in contact with the vulva regularly.

  11. More reactions to the Carl’s Jr. commercials:

    1. One jalapeno pepper makes you cry actual tears that drip down your face and everything? Junior Varsity.

    2. These commercials universally employ what I believe is The Most Disgusting element an ad for food can include: extreme close-up shots of food bouncing on impact. WHY? WHYYYYY???!!!!!!! It’s frakking revolting. This is also why I have to avert my eyes from Red Lobster commercials with their gigantic bouncing shrimp. Is there some media crit symbolism here I’m not aware of (because I got the ‘sploding milkshake, don’t worry)?

    3. You know you’ve spent a long time in the land of real life grownup food when even the heavily styled food in a fast food commercial looks terrible.

  12. Why isn’t the place called Carl Jr.’s instead of Carl’s Jr.? I’ve never heard of this place but still found the video amusing. Still, after three that I can’t really relate to, I hope she does a more general topic next time.

  13. OK, this is the second place I’ve seen where people have taken issue with the word “douche” because it apparently means “something vagina-related”. Where do these peple get this idea? What do they think “douche” means? I’ve always thought douches were bad because they destroy good bacteria in vaginas and cause all sorts of nasty shit. So “douche” is the perfect insult for anti-woman jerks.

  14. I didn’t have a problem with the “hauling your fat ass around” remark or the douchebag theme. Douching is anti-feminist. Calling someone a douche is not a knock on the vagina, it’s a knock on their worthiness to be around vaginas. 😀

    I felt like, in the context of the rant, and also the context of the obvious double-standards of beauty that the various commercials were invoking (I really only found one of the men attractive. The rest of them were a parade of mediocrity with their rightful underwear model girlfriends in tow) and how none of the women in the add look at the boyfriend and think “I could do so much better than you.” It’s probably reading too much into it, but I felt like Sarah was pointing out how completely bitter one of those women would be in any natural conclusion to those commercials had been their life, and how incredibly destructive fast-food culture is in every way.

  15. 1. One jalapeno pepper makes you cry actual tears that drip down your face and everything? Junior Varsity.

    I came here to say something similar. Jalapenos aren’t even that strong– I’ll throw twenty of them into a sandwich, and still find it only mildly spicy.

    I also don’t get the “car wash”/burger thing. Even setting aside the eye-rolling obviousness of the tactics employed, do they really want me to associate their food with soap and buckets of dirty water?

  16. Even setting aside the eye-rolling obviousness of the tactics employed, do they really want me to associate their food with soap and buckets of dirty water?

    There you go, Lance. Letting a little practicality get in the way of a great fantasy. Bah.

  17. I understand and even agree with the logic that douches themselves are gross, but I still have an emotional reaction to this use of the word. As I said, it’s a small point, and Sarah Haskins isn’t the only person to use it, and she is so freakin’ awesome that I will simply wince and keep watching.

  18. FYI the CKE (owns Carl’s Jr) contact form is here. I used to love me some Carl’s Jr., especially 10 years ago before they downsized their crispy chicken sandwich, but their advertising is just fucking repulsive.

  19. Yeah, I still standby “douche” on the grounds that douches are gross, not because they touch vaginas, but because they construe vaginas as dirty and unclean, and actually really fuck up vaginas.

    That’s always been my take too, and I employ the term liberally.

    Of course, I totally support the creation of NEW feminist slang too, if people don’t like to use “douche.” Now that could be a fun competition–who can create the best feminist insults?

  20. All kinds of douches are gross in every possible way; I have no problem with the term, either. Carl’s Jr. has been on my shit list since Carl Sr. poured so much money into the anti-abortion crusades decades ago. I’ve long since gotten over any desire to taste their weird-ass fries ever again. If they want my business again, it’s going to take some hard work related to promoting progressive causes– and it sure doesn’t look like they’re up to THAT challenge!

  21. Why isn’t the place called Carl Jr.’s instead of Carl’s Jr.?

    I agree! I also have never heard of it but these ads are ridiculous. They’re not even trying to hide their sexist bullshit.

  22. Advertising’s always been bad, but so’s Del Tacos. Food’s not too bad, but I don’t touch the fries ever because I used to make them and I know what that’s like. Also if people knew how much bacteria was in the shake machine…oh never mind.

    I only mentioned Del Taco because fast food row had one across from us and Der Wiener dog was next door and we had a debate about whose company had the most sexist/sexual ads.

  23. I know exactly how you feel, Cara – I have to keep reminding myself there’s a new Target: Women every week! I wonder if I can get an email alert about it. 🙂

    By the way, thought you’d like this HuffPo Beatles-related article:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-farr/on-paul-mccartney-and-the_b_183153.html

    I know it’s heavily stilted toward Macca and you’re essentially a John fan, but I thought of you anyway whilst reading it so figured I’d pass it on.

  24. Aw, thanks Elayne! I hadn’t seen this one yet . . . very sweet of you to think of me. Even if it is about Macca 🙂

    I’ve been spending my day mourning the fact that the performance by Ringo and Paul at the concert tonight, which is going to be starting very shortly, is not being televised or streamed online. Not fair, I say, not fair.

  25. I remember that about ten years ago, Carl’s Jr. had an advertising campaign where they likened the sauce dripping from the burgers to blood. There was one in particular, if I remember correctly, that had bloody handprints smeared on the walls of a house, and you think it’s going to be a grisly murder scene, but then it’s actually someone enjoying their burger so goddamn much that they had to rub the sauce on the walls while they were eating.

    Also, I had never realized how grammatically nonsensical that is. Carl’s Jr. Why not Carl Jr.’s?

    Luckily for me, I stopped eating there when I was about 12 because they no longer made their chicken nuggets in the shape of stars. Clearly I was a discerning consumer even then.

  26. I THINK it’s called Carl’s Jr. to distinguish it from Carl’s, another hamburger joint in the (St. Louis?) area at the time. But I may be wrong.

  27. Nope, LA. Gave it a shot. Also wrong about the name:

    By 1945, Karcher owned a stand-alone restaurant in Anaheim, California called Carl’s Drive-In Barbecue. In 1956, Karcher opened the first two Carl’s Jr. restaurants in Anaheim, California and Brea, California; so named because they were a smaller version of his drive-in restaurant.

  28. Yea… we have Rally’s here which I guess is the East Coast name for Carl’s Jr. And we get these ridiculous commercials too.

  29. Kat – Rally’s and Checker’s are the same company. The East coast version of Carl’s Jr is Hardee’s.

  30. On top of the rampant misogyny, I have a really visceral reaction to all these ads that try to associate dudeliness, hot women and 1,000-calorie hamburgers. All I can think of is that gross, bloated feeling after eating fast food, and putting that feeling within 100 brainwaves of anything to do with sex is just … ugh. No.

    My all time least favorite commercial from this genre is this gem from Wienerschnitzel in which a woman in short shorts chases a wiener through a dorm hallway and into some dude’s bed. World’s Most Wanted Wiener. Yeah.

  31. Carl’s not only has sucky ads exploiting the grossest of gender stereotypes but they are an ultra right wing corporation that contributes to anti-feminist, anti-choice and anti-LGBT/T causes and political campaigns.

    They are pretty much in the same league as Coors and Domino’s Pizza in that they are all good businesses to womancott

  32. Pingback: How Gender Gets Used to Support Patriarchal Douchebaggery « Women Born Transsexual

  33. Great video, but I found it the way it kept freezing really, really frustrating. Is there anything I can do for that? Me and my GF were chewing the table in frustration.

  34. Liz: Did you try pausing and waiting a few minutes? If you did and it still kept freezing, your browser might be having a problem with the code.

  35. It’s too bad that their ads are … as they are. I quite liked Hardee’s as a kid and haven’t had any opportunity to eat there in a long time (our Hardee’s transformed into a Burger King).

    Their ads are stupid but I would probably still eat there if I had the chance.

  37. Am currently reading ‘The Pornography of Meat’ by Carol J. Adams. Page after page after page of examples of this kind of ad… ugh.
    (I mean, the book is very good, but the ads… ugh again!)

  38. I didn’t really get the whole using your hand instead of a machine thing having to do with a hand job, I actually thought they were implying it about female masturbation… and coming from a gay male that’s just bizarre.

  39. Of course, I totally support the creation of NEW feminist slang too, if people don’t like to use “douche.” Now that could be a fun competition–who can create the best feminist insults?

    I recently coined “nutscrub,” on the idea that if something designed to clean a woman’s vagina is disgusting, something designed to clean a man’s nuts has to be at least as bad. But there are some constructions that really just require the use of “douche” (douchebag, douchemaster, douchelicker, douchewhistle, douchepickle), and for those, I douche away.

    Not literally. Because that’s bad for you. But figuratively, in terms of using the word “douche.”

  40. I figured that the whole using your hand thing was playing on men’s fear of vibrators. Don’t worry douches, you don’t have to feel threatened.

    These are bad ads on so many levels…

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