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Carl's Jr.
Type	Wholly owned subsidiary
Founded	1941
Headquarters	Anaheim, California
Key people	Carl Karcher, Founder
Industry	Fast food
Products	Fast food (including hamburgers, french fries, and milkshakes)
Parent	CKE Restaurants
Website	www.carlsjr.com

A Carl's Jr. restaurant in Sunnyvale, California

A Carl's Jr. restaurant at Marina Square, Singapore.

Carl's Jr. is an American fast-food chain, located mostly on the Western half of the United States in Pacific, Mountain and West Coast regions. It is also in the process of expanding into Canada and Mexico. It was founded in 1941 by Carl N. Karcher, and is owned by CKE Restaurants, Inc. Along with its sibling restaurant chain Hardee's, Carl's Jr. is the number five US QSR burger chain after McDonald's, Burger King, Jack in the Box and Wendy's.^[1]

Carl N. Karcher got his start in the food industry in 1941 by owning several hot dog stands in Los Angeles, most notably on the corner of Florence and Western in South L.A. By 1945, Karcher owned a stand-alone restaurant in Anaheim, California called Carl's Drive-In Barbecue. In 1956, Karcher opened the first two Carl's Jr. restaurants; so named because they were a smaller version of his drive-in restaurant. The restaurant chain was characterized by its fast service and its logo, the bright yellow five-pointed Happy Star. CKE's other chain, Hardee's, also shares this logo.

In 1981, with 300 restaurants in operation, Carl Karcher Enterprises became a publicly held company. In 1988, Carl and his family were accused of insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission. They had sold large quantities of stock before the price dropped. Carl agreed to a settlement with the SEC and paid more than half a million dollars in fines. ^[2]

Carl's Jr. quickly expanded, and currently has more than 1,000 locations in 13 U.S. states, as well as in Mexico , Singapore and Russia. There were two branches in Malaysia, one of which was opened in Ampang Point, a shopping mall, subsequently closed in 1998, and another opened near Lake Gardens, which subsequently closed as well. Until 2007, no more locations were opened in Malaysia. Carl's Jr. had returned to the market in Malaysia by opening a new branch in One-Utama, Petaling Jaya and another branch in Midvalley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur. Carl's Jr. also opened another store in Pavillion KL, Kuala Lumpur.

Featured food items include the Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger and the Six Dollar Burger, so called because it is claimed to be of the same quality of a burger one would pay six dollars for in a sit-down restaurant. In May of 2005, Carl's Jr. introduced "The Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger" in a controversial advertising campaign (see below).

In both 1996 and 1997, CKE Restaurants bought out the remaining Burger Chef stores anywhere in the United States in Pacific, Mountain and West Coast regions, and converted them into the Western half-based Carl's Jr. brand.

In 1997, CKE Restaurants acquired Hardee's, a restaurant chain with 2,500 locations in the Midwest, Southeast and East Coast regions. Hardee's restaurants are gradually being converted to be more like Carl's Jr, with some of the same menu items and even adopting the same star logo. The chain has also opened at least one restaurant in a former Rally's location in Hollywood with a drive-thru lane, walk-up window and no interior seating. It has been dubbed Carl's Jr. Jr.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002, CKE Restaurants, Inc. acquired Santa Barbara Restaurant Group (the parent company of the Green Burrito brand). Some Carl's Jr. stores are now co-branded as Green Burrito locations. Three Carl's Jr. locations in downtown Los Angeles serve beer: Macy's Plaza on 7th & Flower, California Mart at Main & Olympic, and Citigroup Plaza at 5th & Flower.^[3]

As of 2006, Carl's Jr. operates 1,049 restaurants in 13 U.S. states. It is expanding into Canada and hopes to have restaurants ready to operate by the end of 2007.^{[citation needed]}

In October of 2006, Carl's Jr. and sister-company Hardee's introduced a promotion with The Palms Casino Hotel to sell a $6,000 Combo Meal exclusively at The Palms. This meal includes the signature Six Dollar Burger, fries, and a $6,000 bottle of French Bordeaux. This meal is available on the Palms room service menu.

On July 24th 2007, Carl's Jr. opened a branch at One Utama, Bandar Utama, Malaysia. This marked a return to the Malaysian market after the last branch closed in 1998.

In several of its US locations, Carl's Jr. parent CKE has begun operating co-branded restaurants with its Green Burrito group. This is a similar strategy used by Yum! Brands with its KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver concepts to help expand brands without the additional expense of new buildings and land.

Over the course of recent years, Carl's Jr. has been involved in numerous advertisement controversies because of the sexual content in their television advertising campaigns.^[4]

In November of 2003, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's began a television advertisement campaign, that featured Hugh Hefner, the founder of the Playboy empire. The purpose of the ad campaign was to "humorously allude to [his] enjoyment of variety" -- in comparison to the fast-food chain's variety in their menu.

The commercial featured Hugh Hefner speaking in documentary format. "People always ask me: 'Hey, Hef. Do you have favorites?' I tell 'em, 'No -- It's not about that." Three young, alluring women then offer their insights into Hefner's plight. "He can have anything he wants. I don't know how he makes the choice," says the first woman. The second says, "I feel for Hef. It's so hard to choose." And finally the third: "I don't know how he does it." Hefner's response? "I love 'em all. It just depends on what I'm in the mood for." The commercial concludes with Hefner biting into a hamburger while the announcer says: "Because some guys don't like the same thing night after night."

The advertisement caused somewhat of an uproar by various organizations such as the American Family Association. As a response, the parent company of Carl's, Jr., CKE Restaurants Inc., CKE President and CEO Andrew Puzder stated in a press release: "Who better to deliver the message of variety than Hugh Hefner? We're appealing to an audience of young, hungry guys who expect a quality product, but want to have something different from time to time .... As a pop-icon, Hefner appeals to our target audience and credibly communicates our message of variety."^{[citation needed]}

In May of 2005, Carl's Jr. introduced its "Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger" in a television advertisement, which features Hilton Hotel heiress Paris Hilton in a provocative swimsuit soaping up a Bentley automobile and crawling all over it before taking a big bite out of the burger and giving her signature phrase, "That's hot."

The commercial has drawn criticism from television watchdog groups, including the Parents Television Council. The research director for the PTC, Melissa Caldwell, says; "This commercial is basically soft-core porn. The way she moves, the way she puts her finger in her mouth — it's very suggestive and very titillating." The Los Angeles, California-based group says they plan to mobilize their "more than 1 million" members to contact the restaurant chain and voice their concern^{[citation needed]}.

Andrew Puzder, CEO of Carl's Jr., says the group needs to "get a life… This isn't Janet Jackson — there is no nipple in this. There is no nudity, there are no sex acts — it's a beautiful model in a swimsuit washing a car."^{[citation needed]}

In addition to featuring the ad on their web site, Carl's Jr. has also built a separate web site to play a longer version of the commercial. In an unusual move, this site also includes a web-released parody of the official ad, created for California based recruiting firm Accolo. Their parody is a shot for shot copy featuring a large, hairy male model in place of Paris Hilton. The tagline is "Hiring the Right Person Makes All the Difference."

A similar Hardee's ad with Paris Hilton aired in June of 2005.

In mid-August 2007, Carl's Jr. introduced it's "Patty Melt Sandwich," in a television ad. The advertisement began with a teacher explaining how it was once believed the world was flat. And there are two unruly young males and they start rapping about "flat buns," as the commercial was advertising how the Patty Melt Sandwich was on "flat buns." However the rappers are talking about the teachers bottom when they are referring to "flat buns." The lyrics in their rap contain somewhat sexual lyrics, and there is a glimpse of a butt drawn on a black board right before one of the rappers erases half of it to make it "flat." There are now two versions of the commercial, the one with the teacher displaying herself airing only after 10:00 P.M. in most markets.

Map showing the states with locations of Carl's Jr.'s in yellow and states with Hardee's colored red. States with both Carl's Jr.'s and Hardee's are colored orange.

Carl's Jr. Restaurant in Torreon, Mexico

• Yum! Brands (#2 QSR chain world wide, similar business concepts for multi-brand store locations)^[6]
  • KFC
  • Long John Silvers
  • Pizza Hut
  • Taco Bell

Other QSR burger restaurants:

• McDonald's (#1 US burger chain, #1 QSR chain world wide)^[7]
• Burger King (#2 US Burger chain)^[8]
• Wendy's (#3 US burger chain)^[9]

• Carl's Jr. official website
• Website featuring the Hilton SpicyBurger commercial
• Carl's Jr. Russian website

v • d • e CKE Restaurants
People	Carl Karcher (founder)  · Wilbur Hardee  · Byron E. Allumbaugh (Chairman)  · Andrew F. Puzder (CEO)  · Theodore (Ted) Abajian (CFO)
Food	Monster Thickburger
Related companies	CKE Restaurants (Parent Company) · Carl's Jr. · Hardee's · Green Burrito · Red Burrito · La Salsa (former division) · Rally's (former division)
Websites	CKR Corporate · Carl's Jr. · Hardee's
Annual Revenue: $1,588.4m (USD) (2007) · Employees: 30,000 (2007) · Stock Symbol: NYSE: CKR