10 of the Oddest Celebrity Food Endorsements

Man, the 2000s were weird, huh? Remember all the ads that paraded around almost-naked women? Or do I just remember them more vividly as someone who went through puberty in 2007? Well that was Carls Jr.’s marketing strategy back then—a “burgers and bikinis” scheme, because there is nothing more titillating than seeing a beautiful young woman wolfing down a 3,500-calorie colossus of beef and ketchup. Awooga! Maybe Carls Jr.’s most famous spot within this strategy was Paris Hilton’s, who washes a black Bentley in a black bikini before chowing down on a truly grotesque burger.

But whereas the TV ad at least lets the audience connect the dots, it is this print ad that really doesn’t allow for much interpretation. It is off-puttingly sexual, and “it’s going to get messy” doesn’t make me interested in either the burger or a hypothetical tryst with Ms. Hilton. According to Australia’s Marketing Magazine, in 2018 Jason Marker (CEO of Carls Jr’s parent company CKE) was quoted as saying that the fast food chain has “100% stepped away from that burgers and bikinis strategy….The truth is over time it became less successful commercially as an advertising strategy, secondly it became less appropriate.” Better late than never!