72andSunny, Carl’s Jr. Chime in on Immigration Debate

By Erik Oster 

72andSunny launched a new, somewhat topical ad for Carl’s Jr., promoting the chain’s new Tex Mex Bacon Thickburger with “Borderball”

Two bikini-clad models argue over whether the new burger is Tex (“black angus beef and bacon, so Tex”) or Mex (“fire roasted peppers and onions, it’s Mex”) while taking the requisite close-up burger bite. They decide to settle the argument with a volleyball game over a wall separating Texas and Mexico, in a possible allusion to a recent suggestion from a certain presidential candidate calling for a giant wall to keep illegal immigrants out of the U.S. As the girls duke it out, (both yelling “Tex” or “Mex” while hitting the ball and having the words spelled out on their butts, because Carl’s Jr.’s target audience would otherwise be confused) a spectator on the Mexican side asks, “Should we tell them it’s both?” to which a cowboy hat-wearing Texan replies, “Eventually.” (Get it? Because he wants to keep ogling the girls? Do you get it?)

Following the recent Ronda Rousey spot and an ad featuring mushrooms in place of sexually objectified women (even if the mushrooms did look like butts), this spot both shows a continuation of the brand’s attempts to try something at least slightly different while also being yet another juvenile effort relying on bikini-clad models.

In regards to possible political connotations, the company denied any in a statement, saying, “It is simply a fast food ad, and, like all of our ads, the premise helps to paint a picture about the food. If a connection was made between the ad and politics — it was certainly not our intent.”

Advertisement

Oh well.

Advertisement