Just a gut feeling

ST. LOUIS — At 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat, Hardee’s Monster Thickburger couldn’t escape notice in these diet-conscious times.

Or the jabs of late-night talk show hosts.

Just a day after the Monster’s rollout Nov. 15, Jay Leno quipped on “The Tonight Show” that the megaburger “actually comes in a little cardboard box shaped like a coffin.” On David Letterman’s “Late Show,” an actor playing the chief of Hardee’s corporate parent, CKE Restaurants Inc., in a sketch clutched his chest, then keeled over when asked of any health risks of a burger that size.

Media outlets from Japan, Spain, England, France and Australia have reported about the Monster.

“I don’t think any of us anticipated anything like the media uproar we’ve seen,” says Andy Puzder, the real president and CEO of California-based CKE.

But the word-of mouth advertising, coming on top of a new ad campaign, has had just the impact the company wanted. People have just had to try the Monster. All of it.

“You can certainly say it exceeded all my expectations,” Puzder said of sales, although he declined to offer specifics.

The fuss is all about a super-supersized burger — two 1/3-pound slabs of all-Angus beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame seed bun. The sandwich alone sells for $5.49, or $7.09 with fries and a soda. The combo packs more calories and fat than most people should get in a day.

Carl’s Jr., another CKE subsidiary, unveiled its own gut-busting burger in May. Called the Double Six Dollar Burger, it’s made with 1 pound of beef and three slices of cheese. Carl’s Jr. doesn’t offer nutritional information for its big burger on its Web site, and a manager at a local outlet of the chain said she doesn’t know its specifics. A single-patty Six Dollar Burger, however, has 1,000 calories and 82 grams of fat, Carl’s Jr.’s Web site says.

Hardee’s timing is interesting; McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other rival fast-food giants are offering salads and other lower-calorie fare. But Hardee’s appears comfortable staking its future — at least near-term — on gargantuan burgers.

Hardee’s already was offering five sandwiches with 1,000 calories or more, and eight overall that have more calories than what was once the big-burger standard — the 560-calorie Big Mac.

Still, the company has plenty of competition when it comes to big-calorie sandwiches. According to the corporate Web sites of the larger fast-food chains, the Double Quarter Pounder with cheese at McDonald’s has 730 calories and 40 grams of fat, the Burger King Double Whopper with cheese (1,060 calories, 69 grams of fat), and the Wendy’s Classic Triple with cheese (940 and 56).