Paris Hilton: In-N-Out craving has her on the outs with Carl's Jr.

Posted Jan 24th 2007 7:36PM by Sarah Gilbert
Filed under: Bad News, Marketing and Advertising, CKE Restaurants (CKR)

Note to advertisers: be really careful who you pick to pitch your products.

Sure, you want a big name. You want convincing. You want sexy. But do you really want someone who doesn't even like your product? (Hint: no!)

Yesterday, Paris Hilton plead 'no contest' to one count of alcohol-related reckless driving -- she'll pay a fine and be on probation for 36 months. All this because she was really hungry (and drunk) and "wanted to have an In-N-Out burger."

Which all would be a juicy story, and par-for-the-course with the idle rich like Ms. Hilton. Except that she's a former spokesperson (spokesmodel?) for rival Carl's Jr., a unit of CKE Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:CKR). There was so much egg (or was that hamburger grease?) on everyone's face, the incident made Business 2.0's list for dumbest moments in business.

I'll give this: you probably don't want your spokespeople drinking and driving. But if they do, and they're caught in the act and interviewed as to what was going on, wouldn't you want them to say, "I really wanted a Carl's Jr. burger?"

Pick your spokespeople like you pick your CEOs: make sure they love 'em a good ____ [your product goes here]. It will at least make for a good crawl on CNN. Any PR is good PR... right?

Tags: burger, burgers, carl's jr, Carl'sJr, cke restaurants, CkeRestaurants, ckr, fast food, FastFood, hilton, in-n-out, in-n-out burger, In-n-outBurger, paris, paris hilton, ParisHilton, pitch, pitchmen, spokesperson

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-25-2007 @ 9:36AM

Albuquerque NM Real Estate said...

Poor Paris! What will she ever do? ;)

In all seriousness, you make a good point that selecting a spokesperson should be more about finding someone who truly likes or uses the product, not just a pretty and/or popular face.

1-25-2007 @ 2:39AM

promonroe@hotmail.com said...

First of all, the fact that Paris Hilton has such command of the headlines is sickening. She does nothing to earn that money except dress promiscuously and pout. Her voice is grating, I'd rather listen to people scratching chalkboard than her voice, and quite frankly she isn't even that good looking.

Her fame is all because of a sex tape that wasn't even that good. Is that all I have to do to become famous, cause if it is I'll fire up the camera right now.

As for the fortune, well, daddy should have cut her off a long time ago. She's 25, she should be doing something to make the money she makes.