is an
American Fast-food Restaurant chain, located mostly in the
East Coast Of The United States .
Hardee's was founded by
Wilbur Hardee , who opened his first restaurant in
Rocky Mount, North Carolina in
1960 . The chain grew by
Franchising and by acquiring other restaurant chains. In the early
1970 s, the regular menu featured the Deluxe burger, the "Jr. Deluxe", as well as regular hamburgers and cheeseburgers, chili dogs, fries, shakes and fountain drinks, and the obligatory rectangular deep-fried apple pie. The burgers were advertised as "charcoal broiled" but it was actually a process of electrically heated "char-rocks" that caused the fat content dripping off the cooking beef to ignite for that "flame-broiled" taste.
Mama Cass Elliot was the vocalist for Hardee's radio ads at the time of her death in
1974 , with the jingle, "Hurry on down to Hardee's, where the burgers are charcoal broiled..." Many original Hardee's were built with a hexagonal style building with a pointed roof. Some had lobbies, but most were al fresco-walk-up style. For a time, Hardee's hamburgers were
Hexagonal .
Hardee's purchased Sandy's in
1972 ,
Burger Chef in
1982 , and
Roy Rogers in
1990 . The chain with more than 2,500 restaurants, existed just about anywhere in the
United States outside of the
West Coast at that point.
Hardee's was owned by the
Canadian company
Imasco from
1981 to
1997 . In
1997 , the chain was acquired by
CKE Restaurants , the parent company of
West Coast -based
Carl's Jr. Fast-food Restaurant chain. (Imasco retained the remaining Roy Rogers locations, though CKE does some supplying of them). While its popular
Breakfast menu -- featuring "made from scratch"
Biscuit s — had been its strength in the
1980s and
1990s , Hardee's was frequently criticized for its low
Hamburger Quality . Over time, the Hardee's restaurants were converted to serve the much higher-quality
Hamburger s and many other products from
Carl's Jr. , and also took on the
Carl's Jr. star logo in the process. The
Stigma of the Hardee's name, however, continued to drive away customers, and initially many analysts considered the buyout a bad investment.
In
1996 and
1997 ,
CKE Restaurants bought out the remaining
Burger Chef stores in the
East Coast Of The United States , and converted them into the Hardee's brand.
However, with the introduction of the highly promoted "Thickburger" in
2003 , which was made from high-quality
Angus Beef , Hardee's revenue began to increase. Thickburgers are sold in sizes up to 2/3-
Pound (300 g), pre-cooked weight. In
November of
2004 , Hardee's introduced the
Monster Thickburger ; containing 1,420
Calorie s (5,950
Kilojoule s) and 107
Gram s of fat, it is argubly the largest hamburger on any American fast food menu.
As of
April 10 ,
2005 , Hardee's operates 1,894 restaurants in 31
U.S. State s.
In the early days of the take-over by
Carl's Jr. , Hardee's used the
Anthropomorphic smiling star logo that Carl's Jr. had used for many years. "''The Hardee's Star''", as it was now called, appeared in a series of commercials played by a dwarf in a costume likeness of the star.
Norm MacDonald provided the voice for the Hardee's Star. The star remains Hardee's logo, but ceased appearing in the commercials with the advent of the .
Early commercials during the Thickburger campaign made a point of acknowledging and apologizing for the poor quality of Hardee's past cuisine and service. Later commercials demonstrated adults attempting to fit their mouths around the large Thickburger.
The point of most Thickburger commercials, however, is that most adults prefer to eat large, restaurant-quality hamburgers instead of smaller, allegedly lower-quality hamburgers sold by fast-food establishments targeted at children, in particular
McDonald's . The commercials took the rival fast food chain to task for the quality of its food and because it offers toys with
Meals Marketed Toward Children . One of the commercials depicted a pregnant woman enjoying a Thickburger and the announcer telling her to enjoy Hardee's while she can, since she will "be eating at McDonald's for the next 12 years."
Commercials that did not mention
McDonald's by name overtly referred to the chain, such as an ad where a man works on a classic car while eating a Thickburger. The announcer then says that "it's awful hard for those other chains to fit a busted carburetor in a bag" and then says that Hardee's "has big burgers because men need big toys."
Hardee's cavalier marketing is not simply confined to burgers. Recent ads for its chicken products state that "we have chicken breast strips because scientists have proven chickens don't have nuggets" and another for its 1/3-pound chicken breast sandwich where a chicken walks around with a black "censored" bar over where its breasts would be if it was a human to
Burlesque music.
In 2005, Hardee's also pushed the envelope with a
Controversial Commercial featuring
Paris Hilton strutting around in a skimpy outfit, and eating the Thickburger in a sensuous way.
See Also: Red Burrito
A new dual branded concept opened in the
St. Louis area in
2005 . It is similar to the
Green Burrito /
Carl's Jr. dual brand concept. There's also one in
Waterloo, Illinois and opening soon;
Chester, Illinois ..]]
