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Interesting. Carl's Jr. has come a long way (in a downward direction) since forcing out Carl Karcher. The slob campaign may have chased away some customers, it certainly did not appeal to many. However, I predict that the sleaze campaign will create significant damage to the company.Advertising is done for many reasons. Sometimes it is to create customer awareness (“We sell this product” or “We are located here”). Sometimes it is to publicize value (“We have a 99 cent menu”). Sometimes it is sell an image (“Nice looking successful people use our product, you should too”). Carl’s isn’t selling awareness or value in it’s sleaze ads, they are selling image and that image is not a positive one to a majority of the fast food market. Sure, many religious people will be turned off and may not go to Carl’s anymore (or at least much less often). That is a small problem for Carl’s. But the real problem is that a vast majority of society is NOT impressed with the image that is being portrayed because it isn’t supposed to be impressive. In other words, the sleaze campaign is not going to do Carl’s any good. Face it, regardless of the moral issues, Carl’s is grasping at straws because they are getting killed by McDonald’s, Burger King and probably Jack in the Box and Wendy’s in the market place. Carl’s is following the path of many chic clothing stores that are pushing their products with semi-porn and sleaze. The problem for Carl’s is that it is in a much more competitive market and I think will only lose with its current philosophy. Or at least I hope so.
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