Ghosts Love Hardee's

Hardee's used to be a place people liked to eat at. Now they're generally located by an off ramp with a 'under new management' sign up every few months. I can't tell if it's abandoned or just a Hardee's. Regardless of it's current state, they had a Ghostbusters 2 promotion in the summer of 1989. It's Ghostbusters Day (as I'm writing this) and a great time to talk about that.

I ain't 'fraid of no ghost. 

But I'm terrified to eat at my local Hardee's.

I've actually talked a little about the Ghostbusters 2 promotion here before. I wanted to talk about it again. Because I like Ghostbusters and am a sucker for fast food promotions. This one in particular had a ton of neat stuff. There was collectible cups which were large sized plastic cups proudly displaying the movies logo. At the time large plastic fountain drink cups were not a common sight, so it felt a lot more special than it was. Such a thing would generally be reused a few times before being repurposed as a pencil holder on your desk.

Then there was the Slimer Sundaes. It wasn't much in hindsight, a cup of vanilla soft serve with some green slime syrup. But 30 years later I'm still thinking about it. There was the Ghost Blasters. I specifically talked about them in that prior post. My Dad hated them. The coolest though, was the kids meal. Your food would be served in a plastic box shaped like an Ecto-1, a Gigameter, or one of two ghosts (Slimer or purple guy). Kid's meal containers shaped like things was a Hardee's specialty. They'd come with stickers for customizing. It was a pretty good time that I'd love to do even today. Like right now.

There was also posters for the movie available. Just in case all the Ghostbusters 2 signage around the restaurant wasn't enough, you could take more home and hang it on your bedroom door. The posters had attached coupons for return visits. Which maybe if you did, you would have gotten one of the plastic lunch boxes. I never saw these myself, but maybe you did. With Ghostbusters Afterlife coming soon (I swear if there's another delay) I can only hope for a burger place with a promotion as cool as the one Hardee's had.

Hardee's Christmas Carol

Lot's of things come to mind when you say Hardee's. Burgers, breakfast, and that weird Carl Jr.'s co-branding. For me in particular, I often remember the various promotions the restaurant has had. California Raisins, Gremlins read along books, Pound Puppies, and of course the Disney Christmas toys. To go along with the tv debut of Mickey's Christmas Carol, Disney and Hardee's came together and made dolls of the various characters from the special.

Happy, adorable dolls of the characters minus all the sad and spooky shit contained within the actual show. Hey kids, here's a doll of Jacob Marley's ghost! Jacob's here to haunt Scrooge, who's a miserable bastard. Such a miserable bastard that a bunch of other ghosts come to show him just how miserable of a bastard he is. Then there's Bob and Emily Cratchet who's kid is about to die, which Scrooge will learn via ghost showing him he's a miserable bastard. Or you can have Fred. Fuck Fred.

All jokes aside about the ghost story the special is based on, it was a pretty great promotion. Disney and Christmas just go together. Who wouldn't love a stuffed Mickey Mouse? And what a really good adaption of a morality lesson learned (don't be a dick) at Christmas time. Just the right thing to stuff them stockings with. Not to mention, the place has pretty good burgers.

Ghost Blasters from Hardee's

The Ghost Blast wasn't much more than a small cheap noise maker toy with a Ghostbusters sticker, but it didn't have to be anything else. Fast food tie ins are usually either kids meal toys or random cups, so a little noise maker was a breathe of fresh air. For the record, my dad hated that damn thing. At the time we lived in a house where a small graveyard was just behind our back yard. You can be sure I employed my Ghost Blaster to battle any of those spooky spooks that might enter my house. Don't think of it as just another toy dad, think of it as protection from all those ghosts! Though I wonder if it could take on Frankenstein Mouth?

Hardee's Disney Christmas

I got Donald.

Hardees Halloween Fun Machine

Whoa...