Carl’s Jr., the West Coast burger chain recently unveiled it’s newest Super Bowl commercial featuring bikini-clad influencer Alix Earle touting the restaurant’s new “hangover burger,” featuring egg, double bacon, charbroiled beef, hash browns, cheese, and sauce just the way Alix Earle likes it. And, if you sign up for he chain’s My Rewards loyalty program, your burger is on the house the day after the big game.
The casting of this super bowl ad could not have made more sense. TikTok star and “Hot Mess” podcast host Alix Earle has made quite a name for herself as a proud party girl, recently documenting a 24-hour birthday party saga that involved hooking up all her friends to IVs so they could continue raging after hour 15.
And let’s not forget Earle also happens to be dating Miami Dolphins wide receiver Braxton Berrios, making her a full-on NFL WAG. So yeah, the commercial makes sense for those reasons, but also because of the rapid rise in conservatism and political pressure to appeal to white men supposedly left behind by the “woke” left.
Despite only servicing 16 states across middle and west coast America, Carl’s Jr. was once famous across the country for its racy Super Bowl ads featuring modern-day sex symbols like Paris Hilton, who ate a burger while washing a car (and lathering up herself) in a black plunging bathing suit and stilettos for the burger chain back in 2005. Who other than Kim Kardashian could have taken on the role in 2010, promoting the Carl’s Jr. Cranberry Apple Walnut salad while taking a bubble bath as a narrator begs the question, “who said salad’s can’t be hot?” In 2012, swimsuit model of the moment Kate Upton assumed the role, getting lewd with a burger in the backseat of a car.
As Carl’s Jr. put it in a 2011 press release, per the The Wall Street Journal: “We believe in putting hot models in our commercials, because ugly ones don’t sell burgers.”
That company culture apparently changed when Carl’s Jr. stopped running these ads in 2017, the same year the #MeToo movement gained significant traction across the country. Around the same time, Donald Trump had nominated Andrew Puzder, former chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants (the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.) for Labor Secretary.
“I think that any grocery store you go into, or drug stores you’re going to see on magazine covers things that are more revealing than you saw in many of our ads,” Puzder told Fox Business after withdrawing himself from consideration. “We got the attention of this demographic, young hungry guys, which was what our marketing and research department advised us to do.”
It’s not even a little surprising that these commercials are back one month after Donald Trump’s second inauguration. Ever since his election, many democrats have blamed their party for abandoning white men by spending too much energy on “woke” language and policies. As Trump settles into office, he’s engaged in a full-on attack on D.E.I., blaming diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives for practically everything, including the devastating DC plane crash that killed 67 people.
Misogyny and racism disguised as strength is echoing across the country, with Mark Zuckerberg promoting “masculine energy” in the workplace while lawmakers work to strip back reproductive rights and incentivize 1950s-era covenant marriages.
Read moreMisogyny Is 2025’s Biggest Trend
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“This is the new world with new rules and new rulers,” the current chief marketing officer of CKE Restaurants, Jennifer Tate, told the Wall Street Journal of the Carl’s Jr. advertisement. “Alix Earle is a social media empress. Carl’s Jr. is having so much fun doing things other brands are too timid to do.”
Alix Earle may be a social media empress, but we all know which “new rulers” Tate is referring to. And no matter how fun or on-brand as you think Alix Earl’s ad might be, there’s no question this ad is meant to serve the demographic of “young hungry guys” once again.
There will be plenty of women who will also undoubtedly roll their eyes at talk of objectification, whether or not they share those beliefs (as many of them do). “Lighten up,” they’ll say. One look at the hungover man in the clip, staring hungrily at Earle as she takes her first big messy bite, makes that a little hard to do, at least for some of us.
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