• Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:34 AM

Hardee's and Carl's Jr. restaurants, which are both owned by CKE Restaurants, is going to offer mail-in refunds to customers who have the temerity, or time on their hands, to assert that McDonald's new Angus burger ($3.99) is better than Carl's Jr. Six Dollar Angus Burger (which actually costs $3.99) or Hardee's Angus Thickburger ($3.49), Julie Jargon reports.

Carl's Jr. is also introducing the Big Carl burger today, which will compete directly with the Big Mac. One television commercial mocks the Big Mac jingle with a voiceover that says, "We've got a jingle, too. Double the meat. Double the cheese. Less money. La La La La La."

CKE CEO Andrew Puzder and his team took the marketing message direct to Emily Bryson York in Ad Age's Chicago offices as part of a "McAngus Smack" media tour.

"We're perceived as being better quality, which is right," Puzder told the reporter. "But we're also perceived as being more expensive, which is wrong." Is them fighting words? Puzder certainly hopes we think so, and it appears that we do, doesn't it?

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