Fuggedaboudit: Carl's Jr. Stops Mob Ad Campaign

by Jennifer Lawinski, Posted Nov 11th 2009 @ 1:00PM

Fast-food chain Carl's Jr. has stopped the ad campaign for its Chicken Parmesan Sandwich after Italian-American groups complained about the mafia-themed commercials.

The California Italian-American Task Force and the National Italian-American Federation praised Carl's Jr.'s parent company CKE for its decision not to buy more TV slots for the ads, which feature mobster and garbage man characters that critics said showed negative Italian-American stereotypes, Nation's Restaurant News reports.

In the ad, a man sits in his car eating the Carl's Jr. Chicken Parmesan Sandwich as marinara sauce drips out of his mouth and down his shirt. When two mafia goons approach the car, the man plays dead. Fooled by the sauce dotting his shirt like blood, they leave him alive assuming someone else killed him before they arrived.

"NIAF was pleased to see the positive steps taken by Carl's Jr. Restaurant to remove negative, inaccurate and unfair characterizations in their recent commercial advertisements," Jeff Capaccio, the group's regional vice president for the Far West, told the paper. "These advertisements only fuel further incorrect assumptions about an entire ethnic group."

Controversy is nothing new for Carl's Jr. Earlier this year, the company launched a racy ad featuring Padma Lakshmi inhaling a Western Bacon Thickburger.

Beth Mansfield, director of public relations for CKE told Slashfood that the company, which is also the parent company of Hardee's, "adopts a creative approach" to its advertising. "It is intended to communicate the core message of our premium-quality food to our target audience of 'young, hungry guys.' We do not aim to exclude or offend any other groups with our efforts, but merely to appeal to and amuse a very specific audience. We understand that not everyone may view our advertising the same way, so we respect all views and welcome comments and feedback."

The company decided not to extend the media run for the Parmesan Chicken Sandwich, but the campaign formally ended on Nov. 8, although the commercials may still make appearances "infrequently in limited markets," Mansfield said.

But it's still offering $1 off coupons on its Web site.

After the Chicken Parmesan campaign, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's will be taking another stab at McDonalds, Mansfield told Slashfood.

Its next ad campaign for Carl's Jr.'s Big Carl burger and Hardee's Big Hardee burger will target the McDonald's Big Mac in "round three of the Premium Burger Wars," which Mansfield said the company calls "McSmack."

"The direct comparison worked so well and we got such a great response from them, that's what we're looking at doing again," she told Slashfood. "We just keep kicking the shins of that 800 pound gorilla."

Filed Under: Business, Television/Film, Food News, Fast Food
Tags: carls jr, carls jr chicken parmesan sandwich, CarlsJr, CarlsJrChickenParmesanSandwich, tv commercials, TvCommercials

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 10)

11-11-2009 @2:33PM Marvall03 said... Ridiculous! Italians need to get a grip....the Mafia IS Italian! They surely had no problem with "The Sopranos" or "Godfather". Stop this "politically correct" insanity. If they don't like Their mafia, have them "speak with Them"!
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11-11-2009 @3:01PM dude said... They told Carl's Jr that they would be swiiming with the fishes if they didn't pull the ad.
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11-11-2009 @2:36PM Doug said... It was just a funny add, quit taking life so seriously...it wouldn't be stereo typing if you hadn't done it anyways... But for God's sake, it's just a funny add, I still respect Italians...have to or they will take me out...lol haha see it's funny
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11-11-2009 @2:37PM DQ said... This is just ridiculous. Most, if not all stereotypes are born from truths. People that complain are just denying their obvious heritage or roots. People understand that not all Italians are mafia but most mafia or at least most of the famous mafioso were Italian. It's like blacks complaining that not all blacks like rap...true, but most do. Or a white person bitching because a black comic used the stereotype that whites can't jump or dance or whatever. Just be true to your heritage and realize that these differences are what make each of us unique.
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11-11-2009 @2:38PM nikkorino19 said... whats the big deal? this comercial was hillarious...lol
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11-11-2009 @2:42PM Lori said... What has this country come to? Give me a break!!
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11-11-2009 @2:43PM Lysander said... Really absurd. How do you possibly create an ethnic-neutral ad? Why should we even try? I don't even understand the Italian connection, unless it's by way of
the Parmesan cheese. Otherwise, the characters could very well have been Russian. Actually, this is way beyond absurd. It's some incredibly illogical people who are attempting to make their jobs relevant when their job of monitoring
ads for "insensitive" content lost it's relevancy years ago.
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11-11-2009 @3:00PM Patti said... OMG Get over it i thought it was a good commerical.
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11-11-2009 @2:47PM Don said... PC = Pure Crap.
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11-11-2009 @2:49PM K said... Really? Italians are ticked off about this commercial? Has anyone ever noticed McDonald's commercials? They always have two differant kinds of commercials, one for urban black people and then one for suburban white people. Apparently no one finds that a little off, but Carl's Jr. gets their hand slapped. Come on! Next Big Mac commercial you see, pay attention and then shortly thereafter look for the McCafe' garbage they are slinging. Tell me I'm wrong...
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11-11-2009 @2:49PM david said... It would have been a whole lot funnier if the Taco Bell Dog showed up wearing bling and a gold grill!!!!
Get a grip people, it WAS funny.
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11-11-2009 @3:04PM texasoutlawbl57 said... IDIOTS, IDIOTS, IDIOTS...what?, you think (La Cosa Nostra" is swahili or something? Mafia=Italian; so let's just accuse the chicken sandwich of being a racist too. Hey, it looked like it had ketchup...Native American Red Man stand up and be recognized...and white bread...White people it's your turn to complain about the use of white bread; sounds racist to me...is it the insinuation about the mafia that ires the Italians, or is it how much a chicken and a guinea favor?
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11-11-2009 @2:51PM y said... People really need to get over silly crap like this. Pretty soon, we won't even be able to look at each other without being offensive. What has happened to people??? Why does everthing have to be so 'inappropriate' or 'offensive'. It's a commercial. Get over it ...and yourselves.
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11-11-2009 @2:51PM Anne K. said... God that looks delicious. Who cares about stereotypes? This overly politically correct society is getting WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out of hand.
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11-11-2009 @2:52PM Pauline said... I expected there would be some people who would think these ads are ok but it's getting to the point that there are more and more stupid, tasteless ads for everything from food to shoes and clothing in order to sell. Wherever Carl's is, I do not know and have never heard of this restaurant. However, I agree that the classless and actually dumb ad that was pulled should have been deleted before now. It looks like writers for so many ads are running out of sensible and appropriate ideas.
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11-11-2009 @2:53PM Anne K. said... God that looks delicious. Who cares about stereotypes? This overly
politically correct society is getting WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out of hand.
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11-11-2009 @3:02PM Z said... This commercial is funny! (drooling) damn that sandwich looks good!
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11-11-2009 @3:02PM Jenny D said... wow. this was just funny. ban it for what? if ppl did that to comedians they wuld suck. live it up, lifes too short to take things so darn serious!!!
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11-11-2009 @3:35PM bmc said... I'm Italian and I had never seen this ad or heard of Carl's Jr. until I saw this video...but I thought it was funny. Personally, I think there is so much political correctness going on...that it has taken the fun out of things. There are enough serious things going on in this world...it's time that all people learned to laugh at themselves again. Lighten up! If Sophia Petrillo(The Italian matriarch on "The Golden Girls")saw this video, she would have called those two Italian "gentlemen" a couple of dumb botchagalloups! Ah, the good old days!
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11-11-2009 @3:04PM dude said... Did it say those guys were Italian? No. The Italians just figured since they were depicting mob figures that they were Italians. WHO is doing the streotyping here????
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