![[Imagemap]](/US/images/nav_us.gif){kind=small}
December 25, 1995
Web posted at: 12:00 p.m. EST
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Hooters, the racy restaurant
chain, has been busy in the approximately six weeks since it
went public with its campaign challenging the Equal
Opportunity Commission's allegations of sexual discrimination.
The EEOC said it wants Hooters to hire male waiters to join its staff of female waiters, who wear distinctive shorts and T-shirts. Hooters responded with an extensive ad campaign centered on the phrase, "Washington Get a Grip."
The message is being put out on billboards, newspaper ads and Frisbees laden with comment cards, with postage to Washington paid by the restaurant. Prominent in the campaign is a picture of a mustachioed man decked out in the garb of Hooters' female waiters.
"We certainly consulted with professionals in marketing in
public relations, and determined it was one way to make our
point more forcefully and more cogently than before the
commission," said Hooters attorney Patricia Casey. (179K AIFF sound or 179K WAV sound)
The EEOC is not commenting much, except to say Hooters is trying to intimidate it.
Ken Masugi, a former EEOC official, says the investigation
has very little to do with the law. "What the Hooters case
represents is the private agenda of various feminist
attorneys, both men and women, who have a certain conception
of morality, and they wish to foist that upon the whole
country," he said. (187K AIFF sound or 187K WAV sound)
In addition to the EEOC complaint, Hooters also has garnered
criticism in Chicago, where four men are suing for sexual
discrimination. However, the company, which hires men to work
in the kitchen, contends putting men in the dining room would
turn Hooters into just another burger and chicken joint.
Hooters says the women, not the food, are the product, making
it legal to hire only female waiters.
The deluge of Frisbees, post cards and phone calls to the EEOC isn't the only noise being generated by Hooters' public relations campaign. The sound of money in the cash register is loud and clear.
Patty Purtee, a Hooters waitress, said, "It's brought us a lot of business. People are really curious about it."
Hooters says the ball is now in the government's court, and if the EEOC still wants a fight, it will get one.
Copyright © 1995 Cable News Network, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
