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Television is the main event in our home on some week nights. After a harrowing day of school work and sports, we'll plop down on the sofa together and let the tube do it's magic. Having two teenagers around has broaden the selection of both movies and TV shows we can take in as a family, but once in a while we let our guard down with our viewing choices and we get stung.
American Idol is one of the few shows we don't have to be ready to mute or fast-forward due to language or content, BUT, last week we actually rewound the Burger King ad featuring Nickelodeon's character SpongeBob SquarePants dancing to the tune of Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-A-Lot. My 14-year-old daughter immediately remarked, “That's nice. Kids at school will be doin' the BK for sure.” She was referring to elementary kids where she was once a second-grade TA. Needless to say, my 17-year-old son thought the song was awesome (probably not just the song, though), since he has it on his Ipod and knows it word for word – he probably also liked the dancers prancing around the king and shaking their behinds at him a little too vigorously.
I thought the ad was pretty low, and I can easily just chuckle and let the 30 second dumbed-down commercial run its course and leave it at that. (Click here to view the ad). However, I found out there's been some backlash surrounding this burger advertisement, and thought you'd like to know what the fuss is about.
“Burger King insists that the commercial for Kids Meals, featuring one of the most popular kids cartoon characters, is aimed at adults”, claims the site Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. I don't know about you, but I'm sure not watching the yellow sponge show, and am not about to run out to by the kids meal – it's too small for my adult appetite anyway.
If you'd like to read more about what others are doing to knock some tasteful sense into ad executives' heads, go to the CCFC site and follow what they've done so far on the burger front.
If you've seen the commercial, let me know what you think about it!
This is too funny–my daughter and I had a lengthy conversation on this very commercial the other day.
I hope there's backlash–any commercial targeted toward young children that raps about liking butts of any kind–square or otherwise is wholly inappropriate.
Hi Jen,
I'm glad we're on the same page on this one!