ST. LOUIS — Hardee's is unveiling 16 new user-created television spots for its Little Thickburger advertising campaign in markets throughout the Midwest and Southeast, the company has announced. The new commercials were part of an "Ad Generator" campaign on the company's Web site that allowed visitors to create versions of their own Little Thickburger ads.
Nearly 30,000 fans posted entries, even without a big cash prize or other inducement to participate.
Little Thickburgers were introduced in September 2008 as reduced-sized versions of Hardee's original one-third-pound Thickburgers. The Little Thickburgers' ad campaign, designed by Mendelsohn|Zien, illustrated the size difference between the classic one-third-pound Thickburgers and the new quarter-pound Little Thickburgers. In one ad, The Original Thickburger is described as "Badonkadonk" while the Little Thickburger earns the "Badinkadink" title.
The commercials proved to be such a hit with viewers that the chain created a Little Thickburger online application that allows users to create the descriptive words that appear above each respective burger in the ads. In addition to allowing users to share their creation with friends, the ad could be submitted to Hardee's to be considered for upcoming ads.
The quality of the ads far exceeded expectations so the company has expanded its intent to use one or two of the ads to air 16 original user-designed commercials. The credited ads will run in the markets from which they were submitted.
The television commercials will begin airing in Hardee's markets today and are also available for viewing on the Hardee's YouTube channel.
