The man who could be America's next secretary of labor has a penchant for putting bikini-clad women in fast food restaurant ads. Andy Puzder, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee, is CEO of the company that owns burger chains including Hardee's and Carl's Jr., the latter of which has taken a lot of flak in the last decade for its racy TV advertisements.
To promote its "Bacon 3-Way" burger over the summer, Carl's Jr. released a spot featuring three bikini-clad blondes feeding each other strips of bacon in slow motion while the song lyrics "we havin' us a threesome" played in the background. Back in 2005, there was an infamous ad featuring Paris Hilton in a barely-there black swimsuit washing a Bentley and biting into a juicy burger. And aside from Hilton's ad and the "Bacon 3-way" spot, stars like Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, and countless Sports Illustrated models have appeared in Carl's Jr. commercials.
Though the controversial ads have led "women's groups, religious activists, and academics" to complain, The New York Times reported Puzder has shrugged off concerns. "I like our ads," Puzder told Entrepreneur in an interview published in May 2015. "I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it's very American."
Besides, Puzder argued, the complaints don't exactly hurt business. "What you look at is, you look at sales," Puzder said. "And our sales go up."