A new low, even for Burger King

10th April 2009

A new low, even for Burger King

posted in Feminist Topics, Food Culture, Pop Culture |

This is Burger King’s new ad for its 99-cents kids meal. Yes, because nothing sells fast food to children better than provocatively-dressed women shaking their asses to a remix of Sir-Mix-a-lot’s “Baby Got Back” — the same song once judged by MTV to be too sexual for prime-time television.

Burger King said this particular ad is not meant for kids and is only shown during shows that target hetero-male adult audiences, but I’ve heard rumors that it’s aired on Nickelodeon. Poor taste? In more ways than one. Fortunately, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has made it easy to send letters of disgust.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 1:00 am and is filed under Feminist Topics, Food Culture, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On April 10th, 2009, vesta44 said:

It’s not a rumor that it’s been aired on Nickelodeon, I’ve seen it there, just in the last couple of days. DH had Wednesday and Thursday off work, so he was home during the day and had the television on (I don’t watch tv) and that stupid commercial was playing on Nick (DH likes to watch some of the cartoons and programs on Nick). I thought it was a very poor piece of advertising for a kid’s meal (actually, it’s a poor piece of advertising for anything, whether it’s aimed at adults or kids).

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 2:10 am

2 On April 10th, 2009, Lily said:

This just pisses me off- it’s a lot like the BS that Carl’s Jr has pulled with its sexist ads.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 2:21 am

3 On April 10th, 2009, Lacey said:

I saw it on Cartoon Network in the afternoon while watching with my son. He and I laughed it off, but it really isn’t appropriate for anyone…children or adult.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 2:53 am

4 On April 10th, 2009, bubo said:

Is this ad really telling us we should be bopping Spongebob? ¤shudders¤
The fact that the ad is sexualizing Spongebob’s square ass just goes to show that anything, and I do mean anything, can, and will be sexualized for the sake of making money.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 3:02 am

5 On April 10th, 2009, The Bald Soprano said:

How can it not be aimed at kids if they’re singing about Spongebob Squarepants?? *boggle*

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 4:19 am

6 On April 10th, 2009, Jamie said:

“Booty is Booty?”

I disagree.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 6:12 am

7 On April 10th, 2009, moxie said:

My husband and I saw this commercial the other day and it left us both scratching our heads… They’re singing about kids meals and Spongebob Square Pants to Sir Mixalot? With women shaking around? Um, yeah, that’s just bizarre and tasteless marketing. Whoever thought that one up should be fired.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 9:39 am

8 On April 10th, 2009, jenny said:

Things like this make me want to just live in a cave and hide from society.

How can an ad for kids meals not be geared towards kids? that’s total BS.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 9:41 am

9 On April 10th, 2009, Sandy said:

How could it not be directed at kids if it is advertising a KIDS MEAL? WTF? I haven’t seen it on Nick…but then again we tend to watch more Disney through the day since they tend to have less commercials about products in general (I actually got flamed once for saying I didn’t like Nick because of all the advertisements! Though I do like the shows…).

I will def. be writing a letter and passing the word around.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 9:52 am

10 On April 10th, 2009, Rachel said:

Whoever thought that one up should be fired.

I think their entire marketing department (or whomever they outsource it to) ought to be fired. Does Burger King really think that bad publicity is good publicity? Is their strategy of targeting young horny guys really paying off that much?

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 9:54 am

11 On April 10th, 2009, Meryt Bast said:

Wow. I LOVE SpongeBob (though I think it’s gotten less witty recently, but that’s why I have the boxed sets). That Nickelodeon would let his image be used in an ad like this horrifies me. Plus, that king body puppet is creepy. I’ll be shooting them a letter.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 10:28 am

12 On April 10th, 2009, Sara A. said:

And I thought the Burger Shooter ads were insulting. Because as you know girls think that anything tiny is A-DORABLE!

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am

13 On April 10th, 2009, Josh said:

I’m from the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood. Rachel – thanks so much for posting about this.

We would love to hear from any parents who saw this commercial on the Cartoon Network or Nick in the afternoon/early evening. Please email me at ccfc(at)jbcc.harvard.edu if you have a second. Thanks!

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 11:25 am

14 On April 10th, 2009, JeanC said:

We caught this commercial last night and I was watching a story about it this morning on one of the morning shows (Good Morning America I think). They were talking with someone who said he was watching a basket ball playoff with they played the commercial and mentioned that lots of family watch these games together.

I find the BK King to be exceedingly creepy. He is creepy enough to have turned me off of Burger King completely. Now to pair him off with a Sir Mix-a-lot song about butts (and I happen to LIKE the original song) has gone completely into the land of the so sleazy creepy it makes me want to destroy my TV so I don’t accidentally catch another commercial for them.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 1:31 pm

15 On April 10th, 2009, Mary Sue said:

And I thought the Burger Shooter ads were insulting. Because as you know girls think that anything tiny is A-DORABLE!

As long as it’s not a tiny penis, because girls don’t like those.

Or at least that’s what my spam filter tells me.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

16 On April 10th, 2009, Kelly said:

Yikes! As someone with some “back”, I kind of like that song in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. This is completely inappropriate, though, on so many levels. I sent a letter and forwarded the site to several people.

Besides, the king scares the crap out of me anyway, and I can’t imagine he’s doing any good for kids’ psyches.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

17 On April 10th, 2009, Bekbek said:

I saw that commercial the other day and was trying to figure out who slipped me hallucinogenics. It was so bad is surpassed bad and became completely surreal.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 6:22 pm

18 On April 10th, 2009, richie79 said:

Love BK (their XL double bacon cheeseburger is about the closest thing you can get to a Baconator in my Wendy’s-free country!) but this is just… weird. And whilst we don’t have this particular commercial, we do have the ‘king’ character, and JeanC and Kelly are spot on about its potential for psychologically scarring kids like some latter-day Pennywise the Clown.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 9:32 pm

19 On April 10th, 2009, Bruce said:

You can believe this, or you can not, but the idea that this is targeted at “hetero males” is ridiculous. Speaking as a hetero male, I can tell you that there is nothing attractive about a square butt.

I know — for me to even write that sounds ridiculous. But so is the idea that this is “sexist.” Don’t you need something to be at least in some way provocative to be “sexist”? There isn’t anything here that’s a turn on. The dancing isn’t.

I think it’s just a lame parody of the Mix A Lot song that capitalizes on a familiar tune for audience recognition.

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 11:16 pm

20 On April 11th, 2009, em said:

Funny story..

I started reading your entry in my GReader, and then got distracted by a really strange, disturbing “Baby Got Back” remix on TV.

And.. well, you know the rest..

I gotta admit, though, I did find it a LITTLE amusing. I mean, c’mon, did you listen to the lyrics? I couldn’t come up with that.

posted on April 11th, 2009 at 12:02 am

21 On April 11th, 2009, Rachel said:

@Bruce – You have to look at this commercial in the entirety of Burger King’s larger advertising blitz as of late which does indeed target a younger, hetero-male audience. And when this commercial also includes men wearing tight clothes, short shorts and revealing tops, I’ll agree with you that it is not sexist. The dancers are dressed like Spongebob Squarepants… who is portrayed as “male.” Yet all the dancers are female?

posted on April 11th, 2009 at 9:22 am

22 On April 11th, 2009, Melissa said:

Wow that’s really strange that BK says it isn’t a commercial aired for children, but for adults. I don’t know many adults that order children meals.

posted on April 11th, 2009 at 4:30 pm

23 On April 12th, 2009, qfqwfqwg said:

The saddest thing of all is that my 8 year old brother and his friends didn’t think the women in the commercial were fat. These images to kids are making their standards more and more unrealistic.

posted on April 12th, 2009 at 1:17 pm

24 On April 12th, 2009, qfqwfqwg said:

I meant to say

“my 8 year old brother and his friends thought* the women in the commercial were fat.”

posted on April 12th, 2009 at 1:18 pm

25 On April 12th, 2009, SteveD said:

I found it Stupid when I saw it the other day on TV. It’s why I always use my DVR and record and FF 99% of things I watch.

Please lets not not this Catch on. I can just see it now. Underwear that give you “Square Butt”.

Eat at BK too much and your rear end won’t be square! Big but not square!

SteveD

posted on April 12th, 2009 at 7:00 pm

26 On April 14th, 2009, Rachel2 said:

Oh my word. I went the website and sent an e-mail for the commercial to be yanked. It is inappropriate on so many levels. While I LOVE the original Sir Mix-a-lot song, pairing it with SpongeBob Squarepants to sell kid’s meals (KIDS = Operative Word) is utterly reprehensible. Seriously. Who thought this up?!

posted on April 14th, 2009 at 2:46 pm

27 On April 15th, 2009, Jackie said:

I don’t know, I mean there was a joke in Shark Tales, where the squid accidentally played Sir Mix A-Lot on the record player, and stopped it and said something like “Heh heh, big butts huh?”

I do think it’s playing into the concept of women as objects though. Clearly the person who made the ad, must’ve never seen an episode of Spongebob in his or her life. Which given the popularity of the show, I would imagine would be quite a feat. They’re always making jokes with Sandy, her being different from the female stereotype.

I believe Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of Spongebob, also disliked the ad. Not enough for legal action apparently, but it totally goes against the pro-female message of the show.

posted on April 15th, 2009 at 7:17 am

28 On April 21st, 2009, Nina said:

As much as I love this blog and it’s issues, this is one of those times I’m going to have to disagree with a lot of the people here. Yes, Sir Mix’A'Lot’s song was sexual and the video was not appropriate for children. And I agree that no child should ever eat from Burger King. But, I have to say, I love this commercial. Why? It’s funny. To me, a person with a big butt, a song about a guy liking women with big butts is awesome. And adding SpongeBob to the song, and making it about square butts, is funny. Does it objectify women? I guess. If you really want to read into it that much. But it feels like it’s lampooning booty girl videos more than it’s encouraging them. The women in this commercial aren’t scantily clad, they’re not stripping, and they’re not singing about anything even remotely horrible. It’s a funny commercial about liking a square butt.

Come on, guys. This is not the worst thing I’ve ever seen. If you want to get mad at a commercial, get mad at the Axe commercials. THOSE are horrendous. And not funny.

posted on April 21st, 2009 at 12:44 pm