By now I’m sure you’ve all seen the Burger King commercial that has come under fire for being too racy for kids. Basically, Burger King combines an old song – “Baby Got Back” – by Sir Mix-a-lot with the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon with the Burger King character (mascot?) dancing around to the music. Oh and they throw in girls (of course).

The commercial features teenage girls in short shorts and tall socks dancing and shaking their asses which are square-shaped ala Spongebob’s body. It sort of reminds me of the Britney Spears video for “Baby One More Time” except the girls look more like sexy UPS truck drivers, and I feel more disgusted than simply uncomfortable.

Burger King states the commercial is geared towards adults, but I don’t see how that’s the case given they’re using a popular children’s cartoon to promote kids’ meals. I wish they would just come out and call it what it is – a gross attempt at marketing using one of the oldest tricks in the book. And that is that in this day and age, almost any negative attention can be turned into profitable attention.

“The King” was creepy enough already with his huge plastic head and frozen-in-time exaggerated smile (kind of like the mask popularized by the movie Scream).  But now Burger King has managed to take him from creepy like a halloween mask to creepy like that guy in line at the grocery store who leers a little too long at your 12 year old.

It’s not that I think the commercial could potentially corrupt children or anything like that. But it’s just a ridiculous way of promoting fast food, and it feels as though Burger King was scraping the bottom of the barrel in desperation to generate some buzz. Well, congratulations Burger King marketing dude – you succeeded. But how stupid do you look now?

One final point I’d like to make is that Burger King supposedly joined an organization in an attempt to promote better living for children.

From Wikipedia:

On 12 September 2007, Burger King announced that it was joining the The Council of Better Business Bureaus Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. The program, a voluntary self-regulation program designed to shift advertising messages aimed at children so that they encourage healthier eating habits and lifestyles.

What are your thoughts?  Share your comments below!

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