Survey Ranks Nicole Richie And Ryan Seacrest’s Buns Flattest in Hollywood
August 28, 2007
Carl’s Jr.® and Hardee’s® Make “Flat
Buns” Hot with New Patty Melt Burger Commercial
CARPINTERIA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Move over J. Lo! Beginning today,
Carl’s Jr.® and Hardee’s® celebrate flat buns with
a new TV commercial to promote a hot new burger made with flat buns:
the Patty Melt Burger™. To help bring attention to the unheralded
allure of flatness, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s conducted an internet
survey of 2,000 Americans to rank the flattest female and male celebrity
buns. At the top of the flattest female buns list were Nicole Richie
and former Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s commercial star, Paris
Hilton. Ryan Seacrest and David Letterman rounded out (or should we
say “flattened out”) the top of the male category. Other contenders
for the flattest bun crown included Kate Moss, Kiera Knightley, Jackie
Chan and Johnny Depp.
The complete list of the top ten male and female celebrities ranked as having the flattest buns in the survey includes:
| Top 10 Flattest Female Celebrity Buns | Top 10 Flattest Male Celebrity Buns | ||||
| Nicole Richie | Ryan Seacrest | ||||
| Paris Hilton | David Letterman | ||||
| Kate Moss | Jackie Chan | ||||
| Kiera Knightley | Johnny Depp | ||||
| Mischa Barton | Tobey Maguire | ||||
| Cameron Diaz | Leonardo DiCaprio | ||||
| Hillary Clinton | Rudy Giuliani | ||||
| Lindsay Lohan | Ashton Kutcher | ||||
| Victoria Beckham | Orlando Bloom | ||||
| Natalie Portman | Barack Obama |
The new Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s Patty Melt Burger is made the old-fashioned way, with a charbroiled beef patty that is smothered with grilled onions and melting American cheese, all piled between two slices of flat, grilled rye bread.
“The Patty Melt is an American classic but the burger has been around for almost 60 years and, thus, it needed an image make-over to become more relevant for today’s fast-food consumers,” said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for Carl’s Jr. restaurants. “So, our advertising agency developed a rap song to emphasize one of the unique aspects of the burger: the use of flat, grilled rye bread as opposed to the traditional round-top bun. That rap song, which originally ran as a radio spot for our Hardee’s chain, became so popular with the public – even spawning related websites and YouTube spoofs – that we decided to make it into a music video TV commercial for the burger to run at both chains. Who knows? This may help give flat buns the respect and admiration they have been missing for all these years.”
The new commercial carries on a decade-long strategy at Carl’s Jr. to utilize innovative advertising intended to appeal to young, hungry guys. The ad was created by Los Angeles-based advertising agency, Mendelsohn|Zien, the masterminds behind many iconic Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s ads including the 2005 Paris Hilton commercial, “That’s Hot,” last year’s hip spot starring Sacramento Kings and Palms Casino Resort owners the Maloof brothers, and the memorable “If it doesn’t get all over the place, it doesn’t belong in your face” Carl’s Jr. campaign from the 1990’s.
The new Patty Melt Burger is available at participating Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants now. Pricing varies regionally.
As of the first fiscal quarter ended May 21, 2007, CKE
Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:CKR), through its subsidiaries, had a total
of 3,022 franchised or company-operated restaurants in 43 states and
in 13 countries, including 1,101 Carl’s Jr. restaurants, and 1,905
Hardee’s restaurants. For more information, or to find a Carl’s
Jr. near you, go to http://www.ckr.com/, http://www.carlsjr.com/, or
http://www.hardees.com/.
