Hardees and Carl's Jr Pulls Offensive Ads

In an unusual move for the company,CKE Restaurants pulled 2 offensive ads from both TV and their websites. This was primarily in response to pressure from The American Family Association whose founder and chairman is Donald E. Wildmon.

This company has had a history of offending many families with Paris Hilton and Hugh Hefner ads in the past. One of the latest ads depicted a sexualized female teacher in a high school classroom doing a stripper-style dance on top of her desk, while male students do a rap song about her "flat buns", according to the AFA.net website. The other ad is described on the AFA.net website as being "a scantly-clad woman gyrates to a countdown of things she wants a man to do to her. All the time, she is eating a "patty melt" sandwich." Information in an AFA Action Alert states, "dozens of TV stations promised to reject the tasteless ads".

I have strong reservations about giving a link where these ads can be viewed, but because I believe that most Associated Content viewers are adults, I am going to provide links where you can view these ads for yourself and make the choice as to whether this is something you want your children and teen-agers viewing on TV. I am aware that our children and especially teen-agers are exposed to many things that we cannot control. However, ads like the one which shows the teenagers in a classroom with the teacher being the one who does the stripping, imply that this is acceptable behavior.

You can view the ads at www.youtube.com/jp.swf and www.youtube.com/jp.swf .

If you want to contact CKE Restaurants and thank them for pulling the offensive ads, call and leave a voice message at: 1-877-799-STAR (7827)

According to the AFA website, they are an association "for people who are tired of cursing the darkness and who are ready to light a bonfire." The association is a non profit (501) (3) (c) which was founded by Donald Wildmon in 1977. The organization mission is to "represent and take a stand for traditional family values". The website states that the "impact of the AFA is recognized nationwide". The website goes on to say, " (The) AFA does not support "censorship." Censorship, by definition is government imposed. What AFA does support is responsibility. Producers and advertisers alike realize that what people see and hear does affect them. (If this were not true, they would not pay the astronomical fees for advertising.) Our belief is that if we can encourage advertisers to sponsor only quality programming, then networks and producers will not have the financial encouragement to produce shows diametrically opposed to the traditional family."

If you want to find out more information about The American Family Association, you can view their website at www.afa.net/.