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Carl's Jr Tex Mex commercial
Intro- In 2017 Carl's Jr aired yet another raunchy commercial during the Superbowl. The commercial is advertising a new burger called the Tex Mex and is called Carl's Jr Tex Mex Bacon Border Ball. The beginning of the commercial shows two women in bikinis discussing the new burger in a desert background. One of them is Texan and has the word Tex on her bikini and the other is Mexican and has the word Mex on her Bikini. The two women decide to have a volleyball match to settle if the burger is Tex or Mex. In the rest of the commercial, they are seen playing volleyball over the net which is actually the wall to the border and there is plenty of up-close shots of women's butts in bikinis as well. Despite the fact that this commercial is sexually objectifying towards women and also racist, it has been named by many the hottest commercial ever.
Objectification of women
This ad objectifies women because it uses them in order to sell their product, in this case, a new hamburger called the Tex Mex. So what exactly do I mean when I say the ad uses women. The ad focuses more on women than the burger itself, and all it takes is a camera trick to do this. First of all the ad features models playing volleyball in bikinis, this will automatically spark the interest of people especially males to watch the commercial. To make the commercial sexy or hot they focus on the model’s butts in bikinis and their bodies up-close, which glorify' s the model’s bodies rather than the burger they are selling. They are basically using pretty models playing volleyball to add interest for viewers toward their product. That is how this commercial uses and objectifies women, because it is supposed to advertise for a burger, but focuses more on women's bodies to spark the interest of customers. Below are some specific screenshots from the commercial that I believe objectify women the most.
Screen shot from the commercial showing up close shot of two women's butts. The player is also seen slapping the butt of the other player.
Here we have another clip from the video where a player is spraying herself with water, and the camera is focused on her upper chest.
What this ad is Racist too!
There is another huge problem with this commercial and that its racist message. In the video, the volleyball teams are separated into the team’s Tex and Mex. That is not the worst part though the racist message is that the teams are Tex and Mex along with the fact that in the video the volleyball net is clearly the border wall. They even call it border ball in the title of the commercial. This commercial could definitely come off as racist to some, even though its real intent is to sell a hamburger.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while this ad was meant to advertise a new burger, it did not seem that way to me. This ad objectifies women because it focuses more on making them appear sexy to sell the burger, rather than just selling the burger. Women in the video are wearing bikinis and playing volleyball which is already sexy to most men. Not only that there are many close-up shots of women's butts and upper bodies. This ad may have sold the burger, but they used objectification of women to do it, earning it the title of hottest commercial, and the video also is racist. If you want to watch the full video below I will post it below, and you can watch it and see for yourself how they use women to sell their burgers.
Works cited:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7D4NLEUlx0
Kilbourne, Jean. "Three Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt." Rereading America. Eds. Colombo, Cullen, Lisle. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's P. 2013.
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