Brad Haley, Executive Vice President of Marketing, CKE Restaurants, Carl's Jr.'s holding company

As previously reported on this web site in articles entitled "Paris Hilton pretends to have sex with a $6 hamburger for money in public while Parents Television Council objects" and "Melissa Caldwell, Parents Television Council spokesperson, calls Carl's Jr.'s Paris Hilton ad "a violation of families' trust," but says PTC won't be filing a complaint with the FCC or organizing a boycott against the company", a new television spot featuring billionaire heiress Paris "That's Hot" Hilton is pleasing "young, hungry guys," alarming "family values" media watchdogs, and (not previously reported here) crashing web sites.

Etopia Media Entertainment News Network conducted a phone interview with afternoon with Brad Haley, Executive Vice President of Marketing at CKE Restaurants, Inc., the holding company that owns the Carl's Jr. chain of around 1,000 restaurants, to talk about the Paris Hilton "Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger™" television spot.

During that interview, Mr. Haley said that Ms. Hilton worked hard for her money, although he wouldn't say how much of it she got from Carl's Jr. for the two hours she spent on-camera during the one-day shoot during which Mendelsohn Zien Advertising LLC filmed the commercial.

He said he expects that this ad will run until the end of June, 2005, and that, starting next week it would run mostly on male-oriented shows during later dayparts.

Mr. Haley said that CKE would be spending between $4 million and $5 million in paid advertising to run the ad and that it had already received almost that much in "earned media" from free exposure of the ad provided in news coverage about it.

He explained that the marketing logic involved in pairing Paris Hilton with a Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger™ involved a number of elements, including the transfer of Ms. Hilton's "That's Hot" image to this food product; the psychological effect involved in encouraging female viewers to imagine themselves being the heiress and male viewers to imagine themselves "being with" her; and, finally, getting more business from the chain's target demographic of "young, hungry guys" because these viewers appreciate the company's providing them with images of Paris Hilton in a skimpy swimsuit very actively washing a Bentley, which is intended to make them feel that Carl's Jr. is the kind of "corporate person" that they'd feel comfortable hanging with.

He said the company has no plans to pull the ad in response to criticism of it by media watchdog groups.

Mr. Haley said that the ad was neither art nor any kind of cultural statement. "It's just an ad," he said.. "In the grand scheme of things that are going on in the world, at the end of the day, it's just an ad."

You can listen to Brad Haley, Executive VP of Marketing at Carl's Jr., talking in detail about that company's new Paris Hilton television spot for their Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger™ by clicking here.