Right after I wrote the post on the future of commercials, I got an email from Media Post that featured an article referencing the Burger King commercial where the King is dancing along with squared-butt women, while showing snippets of SpongeBob Square Pants, to Sir Mix-A-Lots’ I Like Big Butts: Burger King SpongeBob Ad Too Sexual?
The author of the article, Karlene Lukovitz, mentions how upset the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) is about the commercial.
One of the quotes from the article reads: “It’s bad enough when companies use a beloved media character like SpongeBob to promote junk food to children, but it’s utterly reprehensible when that character simultaneously promotes objectified, sexualized images of women,” said CCFC director Susan Linn, a psychologist at the Judge Baker Children’s Center.”
I absolutely LOVE that quote!I couldn’t agree more than companies are really pushing the boundaries or already stepping over them.
Lukovitz goes on to say: “BK points out that the Kids Meal is a ‘value-based offer aimed at adults’ and requires an adult BK Value Meal purchase. The commercial is intended to appeal to adults who take their kids to BK, and as with all BK adult advertising campaigns, it is being shown ‘only during shows targeting adult audiences,’ the company states. The commercial ‘is intended to show that even adults can have fun, laugh and be silly with entertainment genres — such as rap and pop culture icons — that have become part of everyday life.”‘
OK, question… if the meal is intended for adults, why in the world does BK refer to it as a “Kids Meal” and why would they use a children’s icon to allure people who are clearly not in the SpongeBob viewer demographic?
Karlene Lukovitz, great minds think alike 
Ok so I understand you’re point, but at the same time, SpongeBob is what I like to consider a “borderline cartoon.” It’s got a lot of things in it that are a little sexual or only things adults would understand, but it’s still for kids. Obviously it’s not as bad as Family Guy, but it’s no Rugrats either. I don’t know if you saw the SpongeBob movie, but it was pretty raunchy itself, so I think it makes perfect sense for SpongeBob to be in a BK commercial, even if it supposed to be for adults.
(Oh and I love that Kate Walsh commercial.)
I haven’t seen the SpongeBob movie so I don’t know how raunchy it is, I’ll take your word for it.
The way I see it is that kids may not pick up on the raunchiness of the cartoon, but the commercial clearly associates it with women’s butts.
Regardless, I see your point too. After all, the meal IS for adults.