"carls jr" news and stories

If you're a fan of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, and, let's say, you like a good throw on a roulette wheel, and you just happen to have an iPhone or a Droid, there's a new app for you, kids. Carl's Jr. has just launched their Happy Star Rewards Program.

"In a nutshell, what we're doing is dragging the antiquated punch-card type of loyalty programs into the 21st century," Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for Carl's Jr. and Hardee's said in a press release. "We are not only offering a GPS-driven check-in app to keep track of customer visits digitally, but we are offering guaranteed rewards, a restaurant locator, a social media interface, streaming videos, menus, nutritional information and more." (The Carl's Jr. app is available at the iTunes App store and Android Market.)

Visit one of the Carl's Jr. locations once, for your favorite Guacamole Bacon Six-Dollar Burger, for example, and after the first check-in and every subsequent fourth check-in, you earn a spin on The Wheel of Awesome™, the rewards application you can also find on the company's Facebook pages. Once the wheel has been activated, users spin it with their finger for a chance to win discounted and free menu items, branded gift cards, prizes and merchandise from participating partners (such movie tickets for The Green Hornet). The more you check in, the greater the value of the potential prize.

It seems Carl's Jr. is about to escalate the fast-food sandwich wars (from KFC's Double Down to Friendly's Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt to Sonic's Footlong Quarter Pound Coney) to a whole new Freudian dimension. Call it a case of patty envy.

According to both the Orange County Register's Fast Food Maven and Eater.com, the chain is market testing a footlong cheeseburger at several locations in Southern California.

True, this is a chain whose flagship burger is called the Big Carl; they've got a reputation to live up to.

Just on the heels of the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, here comes more evidence that the domino theory was bunk (or, at least, that the dominoes fall easier in the other direction): Carl's Jr. has just opened its first outpost in Vietnam -- in Ho Chi Minh City to boot.

Although KFC and Pizza Hut have already successfully invaded territory formerly held by the Vietcong, this marks the first arrival of a U.S.-based burger joint, according to Carl's Jr. parent company, CKE Restaurants.

"We are happy to introduce real American-style charbroiled burgers to the [Vietnamese] market," said CKE CEO Andrew Puzder.

Where once the image of the red star marching across southeast Asia had foreign policy strategists trembling, today there's another star on the march, only this one has a smiley face. Carl's Jr. says that it is "actively seeking new franchisees" throughout the region. It already has restaurants in China, Singapore, Malaysia, and American Samoa, and the company has a "strategic development plan" to double its international presence over the next five years, including at least 24 more restaurants in Vietnam and 25 restaurants in Indonesia, starting with its first in Jakarta later this year.

Take that, pinkos!

It's pretty obvious, ladies: The 30-second spot with Kim Kardashian lolling around in bed with a Carl's Jr. chicken salad isn't meant for us. And it's not really about that salad, either. This is full-on food porn, but let's be honest -- in fast-food ads these days, the porn is more like, well, porn. The Kardashian commercial has all the staples of the genre -- the smooth, sexy soundtrack, plenty of cleavage shots, and even an eye-opening close-up of glistening drops of dressing on her lips and falling down between her breasts. Hungry yet?

Another recent gem comes courtesy of Burger King, this time a print image that was released in Singapore of a woman seconds away from deep-throating a sandwich called the "seven-incher." (Burger King was also responsible for that bizarre spot advertising Sponge Bob Square Pants kids meals with scantily clad women dancing to "Baby Got Back.")

Not for women. Got it. But are men really buying what they're selling? Evidently, yes. The Kardashian ad comes courtesy of CKE Restaurants, the parent group of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. The campaign actually started in 2005, with a spot featuring bathing-suit-clad Paris Hilton arching, crawling and posing her way around a wet Bentley to the tune of "I love Paris in the Summer." Oh yeah, and at some point therein, she eats a Carl's Jr. burger. (Seductively, of course.)

There's no doubt Rachael Ray made headlines more than once this year and who could forget about Paula Deen getting hit in the face with a ham? You clicked and we tallied -- here are this years most viewed Slashfood stories.

10. Martha Stewart Weighs In on Rachael Ray

9. Paula Deen Hit in the Face with a Ham

8. Fuggedaboudit: Carl's Jr. Stops Mob Ad Campaign

7. Woman Finds Frog in Bag of Lettuce

6. Grilled Chicken Lawsuit Accuses McDonald's of Serving Cancer-Causing Meat