Project 3

"The All Natural Burger"

Carl Jr. ad ft. Charlotte Mckinney

Background

In 2015, Carl Jr. released a commercial advertising his new "All Natural Burger", and Charlotte Mckinney was the actress. She walked around naked for the majority of the video. To cover her body parts, they used two fruits fused together, that were shaped like someone's butt cheeks, and two melons to represent her breast. As she was walking men constantly stopped what they were doing to stare at her. Towards the middle of the video she began to take a bite into the burger, but in a sexual way. While she was biting into the burger she had on shorts and a very small bikini top, which showed some of her breasts. The video was called the all natural burger, and Charlotte Mckinney also has a "natural" body because she's never had work done to her body. You see the connection they tried to make? Yea, I see it too, and I know it's bad.

Figure 1

Sexual Innuendo

In figure 1, you can see where two fused apples or tomatoes fused are being used to cover or symbolize her bottom. You can also see where the guy is pinching the fruit, as if he were pinching her butt. In the video, while the guy pinched the apple, she turned around and made a gasping face. In figure 2 those two melons are meant to cover, or symbolize, her breast because Ms. Mckinney's breast are large. All of these things that we are seeing has nothing to do with the burger that Carl Jr. is advertising. "All women are vulnerable in a culture in which there is such a wide-spread objectification of women's bodies... and everyone is sexualized." (Kilbourne 504). There are so many ads where women's bodies are put on display like their some type of object, and it has nothing to do with the object being advertised.

Figure 2

Pressure on Women

Figure 3

Figure 3 shows a close up on Ms.Mckinney's face, and in figure 5 she has on a small bikini top with shorts. Charlotte Mckinney is a very beautiful woman. "What does advertising tell us about women... what's most important is how we look." (Killing Us Softly 4) In modern times, women feel as if they have to look how the models and actresses do on television. Women are constantly trying to change their habits so they can become this "ideal" woman that the media portrays. Some women believe that they have to have the same body as these women that model and act in order for them to be pretty, or for men to be attracted to them. For example, women with little breasts may feel uncomfortable with themselves when looking at women like Charlotte Mckinney, who has large breasts. This leads to low self esteem and depression in our women of today's society.

Figure 4

Men Viewing Women

In Figure 4-5 these men are gaping at Charlotte. In Figure 5 the Charlotte and the man bumped into each other, and he turned around to stare at her. One guy in the video seemed to be chiseling ice and when he saw her walking by he stared at her while chiseling the ice even harder. In figure 4 the guy was watering plants, and when he saw her naked he did a 180 while taking the water spray with him. Men sexualize women on a daily basis and get away with it. The media portrays men to be dominant over females, so that is how they act. Men objectify women as if that is the new norm, and it shouldn't be. Some men can give predatory looks, and they won't be punished for it.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Towards the end of the video, Charlotte Mckinney bit into the burger in a sexual, alluring way. You can see in figure 7 and 8 that it seems like she is making out with the burger, or making love to it. "Sex in advertising is pornographic because it... fetishizes products, imbues them with erotic charge-- which dooms us to disappointment since the products never can fulfill our sexual desires.." (Kilbourne 489). The way she bites into the burger is meant to excite men sexually, but when they try the burger they will not get the same excitement as they did from the commercial. As a result, men are going to be disappointed, maybe even angry, because they can't get the satisfaction they believed they were going to get.

Conclusion

This ad was a perfect example of women being sexualized. In today's society, women being sexualized is the new norm. That should not be something we are okay with, but some women are. They think that they have to grow up to look and be like these women that we see on tv. They believe that if they are not as beautiful men won't like them. The fact that men have that much power over women is ridiculous. Women shouldn't be objectified to please men. In this ad Charlotte Mckinney's body parts were being represented by fruits, which had nothing to do with the burger. Producers are so caught up in showing women's body parts that they barely focus on the actual item they sell. They are trying to build a sexual connection to their item, but customers are going to be upset when the item doesn't give them the sexual feeling or excitement they got from the ad. Ads shouldn't be made to please men and objectify women, they should be made to sell their product.

Works Cited

Kilbourne, Jean. "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt." Advertising and Violence. 10th edition. Editors Colombo, Cullen, Lisle. Rereading America. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's P 2016.
Killing us Softly 4. Perf. Jean Kilbourne. Director Sut Jhally. Media Education Foundation, 2011
"Charlotte Mckinney - Carl Jr's Ad Commercial - Super Bowl XLIX 2015 - The All Burger" 2015, Jan 23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlUvQkW4B1k&feature=youtu.be . Accessed 0ct 20, 2020

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