Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s have chosen a particularly inventive way of marketing their new chicken sandwich by advertising on OnlyFans, in partnership with Vice’s food brand, Munchies.
For the unaware, OnlyFans is a subscription service, where ‘fans’ pay money to access content by specific creators. It is largely used by sex workers, though other types of content creators – such as fitness trainers – use it too.
Indeed, Carl’s Jr is not the first brand to start advertising on OnlyFans. Fly By Jing, a chilli sauce company, recently created an OnlyFans earlier this year. Fans of the account can see Jing Gao, the brand’s founder, make dumplings, or have discount codes whispered to them in an ASMR style.
Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s chicken sandwich will be promoted on the Munchies’ OnlyFans channel. They have specifically lent into the association of OnlyFans with sex, with videos of disembodied hands doing things like caressing burger buns.
According to AdWeek, Patty Trevino, SVP of marketing at CKE Restaurants (the parent company of Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s), said “the whole idea came out this idea of obsessed, which we thought OnlyFans was perfect for.”
“Carl’s Jr. has always been a little provocative, so our franchisees are very used to us marketing in non-traditional ways.”
Indeed, Carl’s Jr is known for its provocative advertisements, with ads featuring models and celebrities like Charlotte McKinney, Kate Upton, Kim Kardashian and Heidi Klum.
In 2017, they announced that they would be retiring the infamous ‘sexy ads’, and began making self-referential ads mocking their previous campaigns.
