Hardee's Doesn't Like Urangus Jokes
Buffett and Gates like eating at McDonald's. I prefer Jack in the Box. Although we don't yet have any Jack in the Boxes in Greensboro, they are slowly creeping this way from the Charlotte area. The closest one now is only an hour away in Statesville.
The good folks at Jack in the Box are running an ad campaign that has driven the parent company of one of the biggest purveyors of Angus burgers, Hardee's (of which there are many in Greensboro), mad. Here's the L.A. Times quoting from a lawsuit filed by the parent of Hardee's against Jack in the Box:
"While Defendant may find humorous the aural and phonetic similarities between the words 'Angus' and 'anus,' " the suit says, the link is made to create "the erroneous notion that all cuts of Angus beef are derived from the anus of beef cattle."You can see the ads for yourself here. (I prefer the second one.)
Great ads like these may cause me to acquire the local Jack in the Box franchise.
What Hardee's needs is a mascot, like Jack In The Box, perhaps Colonel Angus.
I hit Jack In The Box in Ventura on our vacation and was surprised that they have an all new burger line up. But something I doubt east-coasters will ever get is Jack in the Box is truthfully all about the tacos.
Personally, I'm partial to In & Out. But I love Jack's ads, and the Urangus is the funniest yet.
Hardee's renaissance centered around their oversized Angus burgers and, more importantly, drastically scaling down their menu while raising quality, is bound to be suceptible to competitors' jabs. These commercials are hilarious, especially when they change Jack's eyes, emoticon-style, to match his mood. "Angus" is a brand name of certain beef ranchers and they are going to defend it tooth and nail. I don't think this suit will prevail, but it will pay for them to defend their brand identity. The second commercial was quite funny, BTW, but the punchline of the first was more satisfying.