Not Your Standard Big Kahuna Burger: Hardee's Pull Quotes

Ages ago, I had a meal at Hardee's. Now, I'll be the first to admit that the quality of their food has gone way, way up since they were bought out by the delectable Carl's Jr, but the advertising on their cups made me raise an eyebrow. The cups feature two quotes from the media. The first is from the Marshall Independent (Marshall, MN Population 12,735): "Hardee's knows what America wants". The Independent only keeps seven days worth of news on their website, so I wasn't able to find the context of the quote, but I did notice that the headline today was also fast food related.

Is it a historically fast food friendly newspaper? A mouthpiece for the preprocessed food industry? Who's to say, but if the food is really that good couldn't Hardee's find a bigger source to quote than a rural Minnesota newspaper?

The second quote is quoted on the cup as being from NBC Nightly News: "Now Hardee's has thrown down the burger gauntlet." I actually found this line in a transcript of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. While that line is indeed in there, the news segment also contains a line not on the cups from the Center For Science in the Public Interest's Michael Jacobson: "This is a heart attack in a bun." I love looking up things quoted out of context because invariably the context provides some information totally contradictory to the short quote.

In my research I also came across an unflattering NYT article:


Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

Published: December 11, 2004

Dan Aykroyd once played a toy manufacturer on "Saturday Night Live" who sold children perilous products like bags of glass. If he branched into fast food, Mr. Aykroyd's character would probably have come up with Hardee's new Monster Thickburger, an artery-clogging mountain of Angus beef slabs, bacon, American cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame-seed bun. It weighs in at 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat - quite possibly one of the most lethal pieces of food out there.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest calls it "the height of corporate irresponsibility." Jay Leno joked that it was being served in little cardboard boxes shaped like coffins. But Hardee's is hardly alone. Burger King's Double Whopper with cheese has more than 1,000 calories and more than 65 grams of fat, and Wendy's Classic Triple with cheese has 940 calories, with 56 grams of fat.

If restaurants want to serve food like this, they should print the calories and fat content on the overhead menus. But consumers have to be responsible, too, and start making the mental connection between gargantuan fast-food burgers and fries and heart attacks and strokes.

What is driving Hardee's is a simple fast-food formula: poor nutrition sells. The company says its sales have been up steadily since it introduced its Thickburger line last year. In its rollout of the Monster Thickburger, Hardee's has gamely played up the new burger's sheer excess with the ad slogan, "Be afraid. Be very afraid." It is a setback for public health, but a triumph for truth.

I ought to mention, the point of this post isn't to be critical of Hardee's food, but rather the silliness of their advertising. I apprciate that they're using quality hamburger in their products but their ad department is depending on no one googling their cup quotes.