On Sunday, February 25, the Hardee’s
biscuit debuts in a humorous broadcast advertising campaign
created by Cliff Freeman & Partners of New York.

"In many ways, the Hardee’s brand was built on the appeal
of our biscuits, which are truly the gold standard in the
industry,” said Brad Haley, Hardee’s executive vice president
of marketing. "So, it made perfect sense to use the biscuit
as a brand-building tool to help us transfer Hardee’s equity
and credibility at breakfast to other meal occasions. The
new biscuit icon also can serve to let consumers know that
we’re going back to our roots by providing the kind of food
quality and service levels that they associated with Hardee’s
in the past.”

The back to basics idea is carried through in the new tagline
for the campaign: "Hardee’s. Come on Home.” In the
ads, the biscuit sings the praises of a variety of menu
items via a follow-the-bouncing-biscuit approach, which
was designed to appeal to a broad cross-section of both
current and potential customers. Initially, the campaign
will spotlight food quality improvements on Hardee’s Original
Roast Beef sandwiches and Chicken Fillet Biscuit.

"While we take Hardee’s renewed commitment to the basics
seriously, we also wanted our commercials to be irresistibly
fun,” said Cliff Freeman, the advertising agency’s chairman,
chief creative officer, who closely supervised development
of this new campaign. "The Hardee’s biscuit is a positive
symbol for a brand that has a lot going for it, including
employees focused on giving their guests an experience that
will make them want to come back again and again.”

Cliff Freeman and Partners was founded in 1987 by Cliff
Freeman, Arthur Bijur and Peter Regan. Known for its strong
creative work, Cliff Freeman & Partners garnered the
"Agency of the Year” award two of the past three years
from Creativity Magazine. The group is, perhaps, best known
for its Wendy’s "Where’s the Beef?” and Little Caesar’s
"Pizza! Pizza!” Campaigns, two of the most recalled advertising
campaigns of all time. Current clients include: Budget Rent
a Car, Staples Office Supply and FOX Sports.

Hardee’s Food Systems, Inc., based in Rocky Mount, NC,
is a wholly owned subsidiary of CKE Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:
CKR) of Anaheim, Calif. CKE Restaurants is publicly traded
on the New York Stock Exchange as CKR. Hardee’s operates
a system of approximately 2,700 company and franchise restaurants
in 32 states and 11 foreign countries.