Macalua.com

Here’s a quick lesson for Filipino marketers wanting to copy the Paris Hilton-powered success of Carl’s Jr. though I think they’ll be hardpressed to so bodly package sensuality and burgers to the Filipino masses, not with the Church oligarchy breathing down their necks. But sex, este sensuality still sells. Any marketer will tell you that. So how does one pull it off?

Andrew Puzder, president and CEO for CKE Restaurants the company that owns the Carl’s Jr. guested at the Your World with Neil Cavuto show over at Fox News. Brad Haley, Executive Vice President of Marketing for CKE Restaurants also did an earlier show with Cavuto. The two talked about the reasons behind and the results of the Mendelshon Zien Advertising-crafted Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger™ campaign.

ANDREW PUZDER, PRESIDENT & CEO, CKE RESTAURANTS: …we have an Internet site for this SpicyParis.com. I think it was the No. 1 site in the country last week, it had the largest number of hits. I think the French Open was No. 2 — it got like 3.5 million. It was incredible.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Really?

PUZDER: The response has been fantastic.

* * *

CAVUTO: …let me ask you about what you think this means for other companies looking to get some controversy. You knew, I think, that this would generate buzz. You knew that shows would cover this, my own included, didn’t you?

PUZDER: Well, we knew it would be provocative. We knew we would get on shows like “Entertainment Tonight” and the E! Channel. I didn’t realize the kind of real news shows we would get on. But it’s huge.

CAVUTO: So, when someone showed you this spot, all right, here’s Paris Hilton slipping around next to nothing with a burger…

CAVUTO: You knew that this would generate a response.

PUZDER: We did, absolutely.

Both Puzder and Haley also talk on how the ad zeroes in on Carl’s Jr. market demographic:

CAVUTO: So, here’s what I got. You knew you would get this reaction. But I think you’re crazy like a fox. I think your core audience, who are young guys, who would literally eat this stuff up — I’m talking about the burger — and they loved it, right?

BRAD HALEY, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CKE RESTAURANTS: Oh, absolutely. Yes.

CAVUTO: So, what about — what about young women who might say, no, this is bad?

HALEY: You know, well, the thing about Paris and one of the reasons that we were interested in using her, besides the fact that she’s got this line, “That’s hot,” that she uses and we have got a spicy barbecue $6 burger that’s spicy and hot, too — and that was sort of the initial idea the agency had for using her. But, in addition to that, she’s just an amazing, amazing figure in terms of her interest value among not only young guys — who see her as probably just an attractive young woman — but among young women as well, who see her as sort of a style-setter.

And both had something to say to detractors:

CAVUTO: But, you know, you have heard from the parents groups and others who say that this is a horrible thing for a restaurant to do, sends the wrong signal to the people you’re trying to reach who aren’t young males, that young women, that older women, who might say, I’m not going to go to Carl’s Jr., period.

PUZDER: You know, my response to that is, this is an ad with a beautiful model in a one-piece bathing suit washing a car and eating a burger. There’s no sex acts. There’s no nudity.

CAVUTO: Oh, come on. There’s no sex acts? You don’t have to see “Blue Lagoon” to know that you have got something close, right?

PUZDER: I think it’s sensual and provocative.

CAVUTO: Right.

PUZDER: And sensual and provocative may offend some people, and I’m sorry about that. But it’s very appealing to our target market. I think these people have every right to protest, every right to be offended.

Haley adds:

HALEY: Well, you know, there seems to sort of a generational gap on this reaction to this ad.

Young people have sent us many, many e-mails and called us, saying that this is the best ad they have ever seen. And more from sort of their parents or grandparents’ generation, they have objected to it.

CAVUTO: All right.

HALEY: And, really, it’s the younger guys that drive, that fuel the fast-food economy.

Puzder was also scheduled to appear on The O’Reilly Factor, but wasn’t able to make it. Bill O’Reilly interviewed Barbara Lippert instead, a reporter for AdWeek magazine, who felt “Carl’s Jr. made the right decision to air the commercial simply because of the free media attention it’s sparking“.

Lipper adds:

“If you need to get someone to get on her hands and knees and eat a Whopper, [Paris Hilton] is the Einstein of gorging on all fours. This particular skill set plays very well with her, soaping, licking, moving in a bathing suit. You’ve got her strong suit there. They’re doing something as semi-pornographic as they possibly can, and I think if you saw Paris Hilton in other commercials, she’s just an annoying B-list celebrity and it’s unbearable to listen to her talk. Here at least they don’t have her say a word.”

Puzder did send his position to the show’s producer explaining the rationale behind the sensual marketing strategy:

“The target of this ad is 18 to 34 year old males who are heavy fast food users and who buy a lot of burgers. This ad appeals to that age group very strongly, and there are a lot of women in that age group who find Paris Hilton very appealing.”

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How does a marketer fend off charges of irresponsible advertising? Haley provides the ultimate dismissal template, saying that the ad was “neither art nor any kind of cultural statement“.

“It’s just an ad,” he said.. “In the grand scheme of things that are going on in the world, at the end of the day, it’s just an ad.”

So, do you think someone could actually pull off a similar campaign here in the Philippines? I still think Angel Locsin’s the right model. Shoot me if you don’t agree ;)