Sometimes a bundle of straws isn't just a bundle of straws

Hardee's Monster Burger Creates Uproar

When I saw the headline this morning on the Yahoo News page, I clicked like crazy. Surely, I thought, the uproar is about Hardee's shameless objectification of women in an attempt to sell burgers to their target audience: young men preoccupied with issues of size.

I'm not sure which ad is more offensive, the one where the comely young woman stuffs straws in her mouth or the one with the comely young woman undulating on a mechanical bull:

"We could have shown you some cowboy sitting around a campfire eating a Western Bacon Thickburger" a male voice indolently intones "but who'd wanna see that?" Actually, straight women and gay men might. But I think it's pretty clear that that's not who Hardee's is marketing to.

But the article, and the uproar, are instead about the calorie and fat content of their Monster Thickburger (1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat). That is pretty bad, but so what? Please do feed these heart-attacks-on-a-bun to the morons seduced by these ads. Maybe they'll die off sooner. No, seriously, what people eat is their own business. I'm no fan of fast food or its marketing methods (obviously), but unless you're in prison or a hospital hooked up to an NG tube, people--adults, anyway--are responsible for their own food choices. They're also responsible for the consequences.

And while we're at it, yes, the comely young woman, of course, is responsible for her own career choices. She doesn't have to make herself a sex object to shill junk food. She's choosing to. That's her right. That's what feminism is all about*, yada yada. Still, I find it sad that Hardee's doesn't mind offending/objectifying 51% of the population with their ads in order to sell to the other 49%. Guys, would you want your wife/daughter/sister doing this ad?

* You hear this one alot. Actually, feminism is about--among other things--breaking barriers (e.g. getting women the right to vote, the right to a college education, equal pay for equal work, etc). But women have always been objectified and used for the purposes of men, so I don't see calling it a "choice" when a woman degrades herself to help a man make a buck as "progress." But, absolutely, it's her right.

Comments

[Michael Edward Bowen]

The one where all the college guys are in a motel room eating those things is the one that disturbs me the most... It's a bit like watching a mass suicide ritual or something.