LOS ANGELES (July 21, 2009) – Hardee’s largest franchisee slammed a risqué new marketing campaign to promote the company’s Biscuit Holes in a letter to the Parents Television Council™. For the tasteless campaign, Hardee’s has enlisted the help of its patrons to name its new product and is using the inappropriate suggestions -- such as “iced B-holes” and “bis-ticles” referring to a part of the male anatomy -- to market them.

In the letter to the Parents Television Council, Rocky Mount, N.C.-based Ben Mayo Boddie, Chairman of the Board of Boddie-Noell Enterprises, Inc. states: “Thank you for your recent letter complaining about the biscuit hole advertising. I agree with you 100%. Why in heavens name does Hardee’s Food Systems and Mendelsohn Zien Advertising want to put Hardee’s in a category that diminishes not only the product but the brand itself?”

Mr. Boddie vowed that Boddie-Noell would not place the advertising spot in any markets that it controls and went a step further by asking Hardee’s executives for the commercials to be eliminated in all markets. Boddie copied CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder and Chairman of the Board Byron Allumbaugh along with Richard Zien of Mendelsohn Zien Advertising on the correspondence.

“Mr. Boddie deserves the highest praise from the Parents Television Council, its members and other concerned citizens for standing against this highly inappropriate marketing campaign. The Hardee’s marketing team seems intent on pushing the boundaries at every turn whether we’re talking about ‘iced B-holes’ or the company’s attempts at turning hamburgers into sex objects. Each and every local franchisee can and should object and every Hardee’s customer has the right to patronize a more responsible fast food restaurant chain,” said Tim Winter, President of the Parents Television Council.

The Parents Television Council is actively encouraging additional local Hardee’s franchise owners to follow Boddie’s lead. “There is no possible way that this brainless Biscuit Hole promotion fits in with the personal and community decency standards espoused by Hardee’s restaurants across the nation and their hard-working owners,” Winter concluded.


To speak with a representative from the Parents Television Council, please contact Kelly Oliver (ext. 140) or Megan Franko (ext. 148) at (703) 683-5004.