Paris bites Carl's big burgers

Paris Hilton's burger chomping performance in a television commercial for Carl’s Jr was been deemed too explicit to broadcast by gun shy TV execs still wounded by Janet Jackson. One of the few people who’ve seen the ad said "Paris is wearing skimpy swimwear while washing a Bentley with hoses spurting all around her. It's very suggestive."

CKE Restaurants, which profits nicely with politically incorrect advertising, actually paid the talent-free socialite/performance artist for a new Carl's Jr. TV spot that "couldn't be more pornographic," said the source. "It's about as racy as I've seen."

Set to the song "I Love Paris in the Springtime," the 30-second spot, via Mendelsohn/Zien in Los Angeles, shows Hilton touting the BBQ Six Dollar Burger. It plays off her catch phrase, "That's hot."

Although it probably won’t be seen uncut on network TV, the semi-official ban has made it a “newsworthy” event for TV tabloids like Entertainment Tonight which will air parts of it during tonight’s sweeps month telecast.

CKE has a long history of pandering to its core audience with recent ads that showed a woman putting a fist in her mouth and another where a woman sits on a slowly grinding mechanical bull while eating a burger.

In a comment that shows he’s still mentally part of his younger male demographic, Brad Haley, Executive V.P. of marketing at Carl's Jr. said, "We liken our advertising to more of what the beer brands do. There's a lot of male attitude, personality and edge. Sometimes sex appeal enters into it on occasion. It's something younger guys are interested in." He’s obviously chasing after the Miller Lite® battling babes crowd.

The strategy works. The chain hit $1.4 billion in sales last year, up from $1 billion in 2003. It also reported 25 consecutive months of same-store sales increases.

In a reference to a competing burger chain, Tonight’s Jay Leno said, “That's funny. She seems more like an In-And-Out girl.”