There are fast food restaurants, and then there are fast food restaurants that put the rest of them to shame. Such is the case with the oft maligned Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, AZ.
Profiled in the media for their insane menu, which consists of the biggest burgers available (called the single, double, triple and quadruple bypass burgers), fries deep fried in lard, butterfat shakes, no filter cigarettes and Jolt Cola, they’ve recently come under fire for their newest promotion and spokesman.
At the aptly named Heart Attack Grill, if you weigh more than 350 pounds, you can eat your meal for free. They’ve also hired Blair Rogers, a “model” who is 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 570 pounds, as their new spokesperson. Rogers had previously tried out for The Biggest Loser twice. “Since ‘Biggest Loser’ didn’t want me, why not go the other way,” he said, saying his spokesmodel stint is simply “using my size and having fun at it.”
When you arrive at the restaurant, you are weighed by a shapely woman in a nurse’s outfit and given a hospital gown to wear. The scale is in the middle of the restaurant so that everyone can watch and applaud.
Jon Basso, who owns the restaurant, claims that he’s done nothing wrong. In his previous job as a Jenny Craig facility owner, he recommended that clients take a day off from dieting to eat “real” foods. “The best diets include one cheat day,” says Basso.
What do you think about this marketing technique? Is it going too far or are people getting upset for nothing?
via abcnews; image via pulpfree.org