• June 27, 2011

To promote their new Hand-Breaded Chicken Filet Sandwich, Hardee's and Carl's Jr. and their agency, David & Goliath, have created a TV commercial featuring a robot that's frustrated because -- having no mouth -- it can't eat the sandwich.

The spot supports the chains' push on handmade items, including hand-scooped ice cream shakes, Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders and Hardee's Made from Scratch Biscuits, under the umbrella theme "Machines can't eat it, so machines shouldn't make it."

The robot -- which also appears in a second video viewable online (in which the robot trashes his apartment in frustration) -- was designed and created by Los Angeles-based Legacy Effects. Animatronics, special puppeteers, a robot-costumed actor and CGI special effects were used to bring the robot to life in the videos.

The chains also posted six-foot-tall cardboard replicas of the robots in stores, to encourage customers to take photos with it. An unspecified new digital campaign is also soon to be announced. Just a wild guess: might photo sharing be involved?