There are so many things about our current state to be enraged about why is it that I’m going to blast on Burger King™ and advertising the Whopper^®.  Well its about sense and sensibility and sensitivity.

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Have you seen the flat butt TV ad for Burger King?  The ad is a near parody of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s Baby Got Back.  Let’s face it that was a popular club song and probably gets as much karaoke play now as the original.  It’s a pretty mature themed song.  There are remarks like having a preference for rotund derrieres, phrases such as “I wanna git wit ya”, “My anaconda don’t want none unless you got  buns, hon” and the reference to sexual arousal by the view of a nice round butt.  By today’s standard this is not an “X-Rated” song but for sure adult material.

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And how is this parody played out in the ad?  The “King” portrays a DJ and the song has been changed to square butts.  The hot leggy dancers all have padded rear-ends to make them appear square.  And guess who the kiddy-meal to tie-in is?  Right, ....Sponge Bob Square.... Pants™.  And who is Sponge Bob?  Well he is Nickelodeon’s animated character, star of the TV program that shares his name.  Sponge Bob attracts 2-9 yr old kids like a magnet (that’s what a sponge does).  There is a slight twist.  The parents of this age child are on average only 14-17 years older and Sponge Bob has hidden adult themes incorporated to entertain the parent.  Needless to say there is a large adult following.  This same delivery has been used for decades.  The Flinstones^® was the first animated program designed for broadcast during prime-time.  All manner of kid junk has been marketed but the story line of every episode was an adult sit-com.

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There is a growing faction of parents now calling for BK^® to pull the ad.  Citing that Sponge Bob is a child’s cartoon character and promotional material for BK’s childrens meals abound with Sponge Bob toys and the character is emblazoned on bags and place mats.  Burger King who created the commercial with help from Nickelodeon and The Children’s Television Workshop (Sesame St^®. Big Bird^® & The Electronic Company^®) says the ads are geared to adults, not children.  The theme of the ad us supposed to bring back memories and be tongue-in-cheek to the grown-ups who were around back then.  Parents are calling foul!  Targeted at adults, indeed CTW and Nick help produce a commercial for adults?  Yeah, that’s why they produce so many adult programs because its their specialty.  BK is week.  They should have said. “We did it, its good and we make no apology for it”.  They do not, plan to pull the ad.

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Coincidentally, same BK has a sandwich being promoted in ..Europe...  It’s a cheese, chili burger with Southwestern flair and a taste called “Texican”.  Print ads in Great Britian and ....Spain.... depict an stubby Meixcan along side a tall Texan.  Apparently the squatty little Mexican character has people up in arms, especially when he’s shown “inferior” to the American Cowboy.  Don’t tell anyone but Mexicans are generally smaller framed human beings than Anglo-Saxon Americans.  They are short, get used to it.  Well guess what kids?  BK doesn’t want to offend the Mexicans (perhaps word has gotten out about the guns and violence in ..Juarez..) so the ads are being taken down as soon as commercially possible.

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Now here’s what makes me so mad I could slurp the gravy from a garbage dumpster:  When well meaning American market parents say a thing offends them and show obvious rationale for BK’s  appeal to children the company weasels out.  Whether the ads are offensive, inappropriate, or in bad taste is not the issue.  The way the company responded to two different but similar complaints has me steamed.

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In the good ol ....USA.... where we are so damned concerned about being politically correct, not making anyone feel left out or offending BK is telling a core group, parents, that they are being too sensitive.  Further, they are attempting to rationalize away the complaints by saying the mis-interpretation is the fault of the recipient not the transmitter [opposed to communication standards].  But this great US icon of fast food who has always let us have it our way wants to argue with us what our way is.  In the same breath, they fall over themselves in apology and getting objectionable ads out of print for insensitivity.

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Who’s more important here?  American families trying to raise children in a world calculated against decency or a group of people who say depicting characteristics of a race or ethnicity in a humorous manner is damaging and demeaning. 

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