Hardee's Monster Burger Creates Uproar

[Jenya]

Hardee's Monster Burger Creates Uproar

By: JIM SUHR
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tuesday December 07, 2004

ST. LOUIS - At 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat, Hardee's Monster Thickburger couldn't escape notice in these diet-conscious times. Or the jabs of late-night talk show hosts.

Just a day after the Monster's rollout Nov. 15, Jay Leno quipped on "The Tonight Show" that the megaburger "actually comes in a little cardboard box shaped like a coffin." On David Letterman's "Late Show," an actor playing the chief of Hardee's corporate parent, CKE Restaurants Inc., in a sketch clutched his chest, then keeled over when asked of any health risks of a burger that size.


Media outlets from Japan, Spain, England, France and Australia have reported about the Monster.


"I don't think any of us anticipated anything like the media uproar we've seen," says Andy Puzder, the real president and CEO of California-based CKE.


But the word-of mouth advertising, coming on top of a new ad campaign, has had just the impact the company wanted. People have just had to try the Monster. All of it.


"You can certainly say it exceeded all my expectations," Puzder said of sales, although he declined to offer specifics.


The fuss is all about a super-supersized burger ? two 1/3-pound slabs of all-Angus beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame seed bun. The sandwich alone sells for $5.49, or $7.09 with fries and a soda. The combo packs more calories and fat than most people should get in a day.


A Monster Thickburger bought by a reporter Monday at a St. Louis Hardee's was presented appealingly enough, wrapped neatly in light paper and standing a whopping 2 1/2 inches tall inside a box. But the double-pattied behemoth, bought as part of combo with French fries and a drink, stretched the mouth and stomach, too much for the reporter to absorb in one sitting.


Hardee's timing is interesting; McDonald's, Wendy's and other rival fast-food giants are offering salads and other lower-calorie fare. But Hardee's appears comfortable staking its future ? at least near-term ? on gargantuan burgers.


Hardee's already was offering five sandwiches with 1,000 calories or more, and eight overall that have more calories than what was once the big-burger standard ? the 560-calorie Big Mac.


Still, the company has plenty of competition when it comes to big-calorie sandwiches. According to the corporate Web sites of the larger fast-food chains, the Double Quarter Pounder with cheese at McDonald's has 730 calories and 40 grams of fat, the Burger King Double Whopper with cheese (1,060 calories, 69 grams of fat), and the Wendy's Classic Triple with cheese (940 and 56).


"Not every product has to be aimed at the health-conscious," Puzder said, noting that since the introduction of the Thickburger family in April 2003, sales for the 2,067-restaurant chain have risen steadily.


Though CKE fell to a loss in the second-quarter ending Aug. 9 ? given charges for settlement reserves and debt refinancing ? the company said sales at its Hardee's and the Carl's Jr. chains rose in the four weeks ended Nov. 1 for the 17th straight reporting period.


Edwin Depke, 80, a retired box company worker who has long loved the Thickburgers, was won over by the Monster at a St. Louis Hardee's.


Calories schmalories, he said.


"They're big and thick, with all the trimmings," Depke said. "You don't have to worry about all bun and no meat."


"They're really good. Eat one, and you don't have to worry about another. It's a meal."


Still, many have questioned Hardee's approach at a time when airlines say America's growing waistlines are hurting their bottom lines, costing them more in fuel.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based advocate for nutrition and health, dubbed the Thickburgers "food porn," the Monster "the fast-food equivalent of a snuff film."

"At a time of rampant heart disease and obesity, it is the height of corporate irresponsibility for a major chain to peddle a 1,420-calorie sandwich," the center said.

Lighten up, others say.

"Let the food puritans say what they will," the Star Tribune of Minneapolis said in an editorial. "There's nothing really wrong with counting the occasional juicy burger among life's simple pleasures."

"The promotional campaign has relied so heavily on humor that it seems possible to take the Monster Thickburger itself as kind of a goof on the fast-food industry's belated and rather lame, lawsuit-driven trend toward healthier menu choices," the newspaper said, asking "does anyone who savors a good green salad really think McDonald's or Subway is the place to go?"

Chase Squires, a St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reporter, tried the Monster Thickburger and found it "kind of mushy," opining in a column Nov. 23 that there were healthier food options. Holiday air travelers, he suggested, should go lighter on the airlines and "have a stick of butter instead. That has only 800 calories and 88 grams of fat. We could always wrap it in bacon."

Puzder has the stomach for such dissent.

"We want Hardee's to be known as the place for big, juicy, decadent burgers," he says. "Every time (comics or critics) come out with something, it helps us advance the impression of the brand. This all helps."

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune

[Dutabi84]

"Calories schmalories." Haha, yeah right.

I bet it also creates an "up roar" when you have to sit on the toilet later that night.

[Jenya]

Hmmm...Reminds me of a similar story from Canada a few months ago:


Harv attack: Harvey's sinks teeth into bigger burger, defends health value

By: STEVE ERWIN
CANADIAN PRESS

September 17, 2004

TORONTO - It's a delicious irony.

Harvey's is beefing up its menu with a monster-sized burger while its fast-food competitors roll out "lighter menu" options offering more greens for calorie and carb counters. The Big Harv's patty weighs 170 grams, compared with 64 grams in a regular burger.

But the chief executive of Harvey's parent company makes no apologies for a strategy clearly aimed at attracting Canadian men in their 20s and 30s through a back-to-the-burger marketing campaign that he says fills a consumer demand for the big and beefy.

"Yes, it's a product that is probably going to appeal to a bigger appetite," acknowledges Gabe Tsampalieros, CEO of Cara Operations Ltd., which also owns the Second Cup, Swiss Chalet, Kelsey's, Montana's, Milestone's and other restaurant brands.

"Canadian males love a good slab of meat," he explained, adding that such Canuck carnivores represent "a demographic that I believe feels they have been disenfranchised in the sense nobody's looking after them.

"Guys go out and play a game of squash, play a round of football. They've been out on the town, they're hungry, they want something that's wholesome," he explained.

"They're not shy about saying they want a great-tasting hamburger, which I'll garnish to my taste and I'll wash it down with a beer, a soda or a cold water."

Harvey's website suggests the Big Harv - its new burger with a six-ounce patty - contains the highest protein count of its sandwich selection - 35.6 grams - and its highest fat content, at 33.5 grams. And that's before cheese and any garnishes are piled on top.

By comparison, the closely named Big Mac popularized by fast-food sales champion McDonald's, according to its own website, has 28 grams of protein and 32 grams of fat.

North America's love affair with fast food got bigger with the move towards combos of burgers-and-fries-with-a-pop, and a trend in the past decade has seen "large-size" versions of such meal deals.

The "upsizing" has been heavily criticized by nutritionists. In step, many fast-food chains have upgraded their menus to accommodate less fatty items.

Tsampalieros defends Harvey's menu by noting that it has for years offered salads instead of fries with its burger combos, at no extra charge. He points out that its burgers are grilled, not fried, and that the chain has generally moved away from fried foods over the years.

But he said the Big Harv, called Le Colossal Harvey's in Quebec, reacts to what consumers want - and he noted that 14 years ago Harvey's offered a "lean" hamburger to which "the consumer said thanks, but no thanks, quite frankly," he said.

Tsampalieros was adamant that the chain isn't trying to dissuade consumers from trendy low-carbohydrate diets. He promoted the burger chain's "custom combos" that allow side orders of french fries and onion rings to be replaced with salad, and pop replaced with water or milk.

"We're not apologizing," Tsampalieros said in an interview at a Toronto Harvey's outlet. "The gurus are now saying that the healthiest diet is a high-protein diet. This is a high-protein diet.

"If they're worried about their calorie consumption, have it with water and a salad," he added.

"You want to load up with cheese, that's your option. We don't put the mayo in your sandwich."

The Big Harv marketing blitz comes as Cara looks to recover sales from a difficult summer when SARS, a single case of mad cow disease in Alberta, the power blackout and other factors reduced sales. Cara's overall profits plunged in the most recent quarter to $5.7 million, from $28.5 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Cara's majority owner, a firm owned by descendants of its Phelan family founders, recently offered to take the company private in a $324-million deal, pending a November vote by shareholders.

Tsampalieros said going private would have little impact on the company's growth strategy - which for Harvey's includes a bigger burger but no aggressive expansion of the chain beyond its main markets - Quebec and Ontario.

New stores will be concentrated in the expanding area around Montreal and the southern Ontario's Golden Horseshoe region.

Other than sites in Edmonton and Calgary, Harvey's can only be found in Western Canada at Home Depot kiosks. There are also a few stand-alone Harvey's in the Maritimes.

Tsampalieros said Harvey's lack of expansion outside Central Canada mirrors Cara's reluctance to aggressively expand any of its brands in the United States. There are several Swiss Chalet and Montana's locations plus a Kelsey's in Buffalo, N.Y., and a Milestone's in Seattle.

"We have our toe-hold in there to gauge the market," he said.

However, while Cara is not limited to the Canadian marketplace, "it is the backyard that we know," he said. "There is a lot of growth potential in this market. We're not going to walk away from it and we will nurture growth in other markets."

As for Cara's in-flight catering on Air Canada flights - which now involve "restaurant-quality" food on medium-haul flights for up to $12, replacing complimentary meals - Tsampalieros said he's confident in the airline's restructuring.

Cara will take a "minuscule" equity stake as an Air Canada (TSX:AC) creditor after the airline restructures, he said.

"Are we 100 per cent confident? There's always a 'what if?' ," he said, adding that Cara has faith in Air Canada's management team.

He expects the in-flight meal offers will be "revenue neutral" to the company but could attract passengers to some of Cara's restaurants.

SOURCE: Toronto Star

[PZelda]

Good thing I don't like large burgers...Therefore, I won't like it.

[Stormtracker TF]

I want one of those. If it kills me...What a way to go.

[Dr. Jazz]

A co-worker & myself ate at Hardees for lunch last week & we both had one of those Monster Thickburgers Little did we know it was over 1400 calories lol We didn't even get fries because we knew it would be a big one & we could hardly finish our burgers. Suffice it to say, I won't be getting another Monster Burger