The Cod is troubled by the FF Nation backlash that seems to be pimping the most unhealthy fast food as "old school." The predictable outcries, summarized here, have elicited an equally predictable reaction from he-men like this. The "nanny state" argument is hogwash, considering that the criticism of Hardee's is that the campaign and the product is irresponsible, and bad, not illegal. We live in a free society, mostly, still, but to encourage bad choices is, well, bad. Somehow, inexplicable denunciations of "food porn" do not seem like the answer, as the Thickburger consumer is unlikely to read the press releases of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Also, the gist of the problem is not the exploitative images of cheeseburgers, but cheeseburgers themselves. The concern is filth, not representations of filth. A more cogent, target-demographic-resonating argument might run like this:
"When you think about it, A Frisco Thckburger sounds pretty gay, doesn't it?"
Music and relatively wholesome food content soon.
I was surprised to see that the Hardee's press release that you linked to was out of St. Louis, MO, and released by the mound city PR firm, CKR.
Back in the day, I worked for this firm briefly, during the Summer of 90', in order to pay rent and finance 40 ouncers purchased from the Delmar Limits Grocer, conveniently located one flight of steps down from the apt occupied by me and the Hobbyist.
Anyway, for a month or two until CKR fired me (for laziness? insubordination? reading Moby Dick during lunch hour?) I was working on the Winchester rifle account. They had me calling state and national parks, clubs, and hunting shops all over the country in a PR effort by the firearms company to encourage people to shoot more geese, though not necessarily fewer ducks.
I don't know if I succeeded in increasing national goose kills, but I definately did not manage to convince at least one psychotically paranoid Nebraska Cabella's outlet manager that I was not calling on behalf of the jackbooted thugs at the bureau of ATF.
Posted by: the punisher | Monday, 18 April 2005 at 11:52 AM