Fast food restaurant Carl’s Jr are known for their controversial advertisements, but their latest effort is controversial for totally different reasons.
The brand, who frequently feature scantily clad models in their commercials, enlisted the help of running back and Rookie of the Year Todd Gurley for their latest ad – and it is getting them all the wrong sorts of attention.
Todd, who was drafted last year by the Los Angeles Rams, is welcomed to his new home in the commercial by actor Jay Mohr, playing Todd’s agent in a sort of return to his Jerry Maquire character, and a meal in the form of a Carl’s Jr ‘California Classic’ hamburger.
The pair are seen walking through a swanky Los Angeles office, when Jay offers Todd the burger from a bag, which he pulls out at a sideways angle, yet it magically emerges immaculately formed.
Before digging in, Todd is interrupted by a pair of beautiful women looking to take a picture with him.
Then, the quite clearly superimposed image is made even more obvious when Todd goes to take a bite from the burger and the image remains perfectly static with both his fingers and mouth hidden behind it.
Not only is the image clearly not the real burger being bitten, but photography website PetaPixel muses that the image is likely a still photo.
The ad has been watched on YouTube more than 130,000 times since being posted two weeks ago, and it didn’t take long before viewers were pointing out the obvious editing fail.
‘If he was so hungry you should have fed him a real burger!’ said one user on YouTube, while another added: ‘That CGI burger is as inflated as your prices.’
One joker asked: ‘Did you guys have a hamburger wear a motion capture suit for that shot?’
Other users insinuated that the use of a fake burger means that the real thing isn’t anywhere near as good-looking.
‘Do your Burgers look that bad that you f***ing needed to pay someone to make a CGI BURGER? [sic]’ said one user.
The mockery continued on various social media websites before the brand finally felt the need to reply to the criticism.
In fact, Carl’s Jr went ahead and released footage confirming that the burger in the final edit was a fake, showing Todd taking a bite out of the real burger to confirm that the football star did, in fact, eat the burger.
‘Hey, a lot of things in SoCal are enhanced but Todd really did eat A LOT of Cali Classics,’ the brand tweeted on June 10, along with the gif of the real video.
Previous ads by the brand have also gained plenty of attention, though mostly for their use of scantily clad models such as Heidi Klum and Charlotte McKinney seductively munching on their burgers.
Yet, with the new fake burger controversy now raging, a look at previous ads by Carl’s Jr also provoke questions of how they might be guilty of subbing in the prettier sandwich in post-production for more than just one of their commercials.
