Objectifying women is always good ! (sarcasm alert). Either way this commercial is bad- and what's to keep children from seeing it off of nickelodeon during prime time ?

Because the lessons of objectification and unhealthy eating can never be taught too early! Burger King sucks.

I tried to post this video too, I'm glad that I wasn't the only one offended by this.

Absolutely sooooooo freaking unbelievable.

This actually made me loose my appetite.

I'd like to see some evidence besides "rumors" that this showed on Nick or CN during prime-time. I wouldn't be surpised if it showed after that, the later programming for CN (not sure about Nick) is aimed at adults anyways.

Yet another shining example of the media's nuanced understanding of women.

*headdesk**headdesk**headdesk**headdesk*

I... and the... but... *sigh*

*headdesk*

One of the women on 'the f-word' said she saw it on Nickelodeon so I don't think it's rumored.

It's just...

*headdesk*

"Been known to wrong him a thong"? "Your girlfriend wants to squeeze him, wants to push his pores and tease him?"

Really, Nickelodeon? Really?

And let's not forget the perverted old man using a telescope to watch them pretty young things shake it with phone books down their pants.

Thank you for posting this! I meant to last night and forgot. It came on at the gym and I was completely disgusted (oh, and I'll have to do a whole separate posting on what I see on TV while at the gym...). The fact that at the end of the commercial it announced it was promoting a kids meal struck me as incredibly bizarre.

I can see how someone would find the spoof of the song amusing (well, barely amusing...), but the creepy dancing and MEASURING OF THE WOMEN'S BODIES really pushed me over the edge. Gross!

Someone somewhere probably thought this was a funny way to get stoners to buy a 99 cent meal late at night. But did they honestly think no one would assume it was for kids when it features footage from a kids' cartoon show? Not to mention that it's sexist and offensive no matter who the target demographic is.

I don't think the women are dressed provocatively, but the emphasis on women's butts to promote a kids' meal is troublesome. Do you think Nickelodeon knew that Spongebob would be used in this way?

What? How is this at all offensive? The women are not scantily clad. They're making fun of the big butts song. And it's only show late at night when adults are watching. Cartoon Network has a long standing policy of airing adult programs late in the evening. Cartoons do not equal child's programing. It's smart to advertise to the people who buy the children meals. And it's the adults who are going to appreciate the play on an old well-known song.

You've "heard rumors?" What kind of responsible blogging is that? I'm not just appalled at your poor sense and reporting, but at the editors for bumping this slop to the front page.

Spongebob deserves better than that! He's never objectified Sandy or Pearl or Mrs. Puff. D:

I saw that three times this week during primetime! I was shocked this would be targeting children. I don't have kids and I find it offensive.

Thanks for posting a link to protest this. What a disgusting ad.

Personally, I find the ad crude and creepy. God, so many reasons...

1. The crude objectification. None of the women presented is anything more than an object here. They're also dancing for the amusement of the burger king.

2. Mixing sex with cartoons aimed at children. If it was an adult cartoon, that is one thing, but it is a cartoon made for kids.

3. The colors they chose for the whole scene are mismatched and add to the creepy atmosphere.

4. The song. I can take or leave the original, but the re-work of it here strongly reinforces the sex with cartoons theme.

Perhaps it is meant to be a funny parody, but I simply find it disgusting.

Another thanks for posting the link to protest. I just sent the letter. I hope more people do the same.

I heard a rumor that Hitler clones are alive and well and living in Deluth.

I don't really expect any better from a fast food chain, honestly. Shareholders and execs getting filthy rich off of minimum-wage labor and cruelty-intensive factory farming that's miles past disgusting, along with the rainforest beef... A hideous ad for a hideous corporation and product; it's actually fitting, in a horrible way.

This ad has been on Nick and/or CN, I've seen it while my younger brother was watching cartoons. I'm 100% positive on this. It is creepy and highly innapropriate for children.

That ad is way too long to appear on television. Are they running a shortened version, maybe without some of the more questionable lyrics and camera shots? *hopes*

I saw another BK/Spongebob promotion commercial this afternoon. It was shorter, and I don't remember any dancers. I don't know exactly what was going on other than the king dancing and Spongebob was there.

I'm glad this has been posted! I was getting ready to submit it a few moments ago.

I saw the spot last night around 1 AM (during a re-run of King Of The Hill). Has it been shown during children's programming, can anyone confirm? I know another commenter saw it during the afternoon news in Austin, but one could argue that news would not only not interest a child, but that some of the news stories themselves are probably things a parent would rather not explain to a small child. Specifically Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network's non-Adult Swim programming?

I understand the hysteria over the fact that this has been shown on children's channels, and I totally agree. But I don't believe it's okay for adults either! Objectification is objectification.

Rumour is definately not evidence. And any call to action based solely on rumour is ill advised.

As the OP was written, it wasn't the best way for ricaro to present this to us. The criticism about the rumour aspect to this story is valid, but the manner in which various commentors have gone about raising this aspect of the OP are guilty of their own misdemeanor: laziness.

All one needed to do was click on the provided link to the f-word. Confirmation in the comments of the commercial being aired during times children would be likely to view it could easily be found on the crosspost (which also includes the shorter, 30 second commercial version). The information was readily available.

I saw this the other day (in the middle of the afternoon) when I was watching TV with a friend. I wish I could remember on what channel or what I was watching, but it came on in the middle of the day. I also saw it again yesterday in the middle of the afternoon when I was watching tv with my mom. The first time I saw it my friend and I just looked at each other like what the heck!!??? He is a straight 27 year old and not very progressive male but even he was shocked and made the comment he couldn't believe that they were using sex to sell Kids Meals. I remember seeing it yesterday cause I was like, "ughh.. I am never stopping at another Burger King." I don't know what Burger King's goal here was. They are trying to sell Kids Meals yet they are not targeting Mom's because they state they are showing the commercials during male targeted shows. Perhaps Dads? Or maybe the target really is kids. After all, commercials do target kids, the goal is to make them whine beg and pester their parents for the product. Either way, I can't see how these commercials would make parents want to buy BK for their kids. The objectification of women throughout is offensive regardless of the target audience and the strong sexual tones being used to sell a kid's product is just plain gross.

This is directed at kids? Weird that.

THANK you for putting this up. I saw this commercial the other day and just about had a stroke because of how angry it made me. I was twitching for a good half hour straight...

Male gaze. Catered to everywhere. Makes me wish I was never born sometimes.

So, does anyone know how much Spongebob is actually affiliated with this? I mean, they had to approve it at some point... did the owners agree that this was a good way to use their program to market a meal for children? If so, I think we should be calling Spongebob out as well. I mean, if I had a show and power over whether or not people used it to do marketing like this, I would say 'no way, Jose.'

To be honest, I don't really care if it's necessarily targeted at kids or shown when kids can see it, this ad shouldn't be targeted at anyone, and shouldn't be shown at all. This is just BK putting women down (again) for the sake of getting a few more bucks from guys. Sarah Haskins totally needs to do a sequel to Carl's Jr about BK.

...wow. Way to fail, BK. They song itself isn't the truly offensive part, I think. It's the use of *shudders* scantily-clad women dressed up in Spongebob's clothes. This is so wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to start. I do know, however, that I bet BK could have done essentially the same thing (a silly union of Sir-Mix-A-Lot and Spongebob*) in a way that was so much less offensive and frankly gross. Spongebob is not sexy!

(*A few tweaks and I would have no issue with the song itself...)

I was expecting something far more offensive when I started watching the video. It ... wasn't offensive at all. I mean, I've always found the big butt song to be a bit icky for obvious reasons, but this felt no different from a Weird Al parody. I was a kid when the original song came out and I don't remember anyone having a fainting spell then--it was even played at school dances. The original song. Not a silly Squarepants parody.

So ... yeah. Hard to get offended when the source material is what's really to blame.

And provocative?? In which country? Give me a break. If that's provocative, I'll eat my hat.

Was anyone else skeeved out that the "king" character says of Spongebob (in the context of all this weirdness) "I wanna get wit' ya, 'cuz you make me richer?"

Actually, this commercial has been on the Cartoon Network's adult service, Adult Swim, which airs over the channel between 9 PM and 5:30 AM

And the ad was OBVIOUSLY aimed at adult men - think about it, Sir Mix-a-lot and break dancing? Would today's kids even have ever heard that song - or seen somebody break?

Sir Mix-a-lot wrote the original song in 1989 - so, obviously, the commercial is aimed at people of my generation (I was college age when the original song came out) not at kids.

I've only seen the commercial on late at night - around the time Adult Swim's more adult cartoons are on (the Venture Brothers, the Boondocks, Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force ect).

All of those cartoons are ADULT with a capital A - if children were watching any of those shows, they'd be exposed to a lot more sexual content than this commercial has.

And, BTW, what exactly is so objectionable about this commercial?

I'm asking a serious question here - yes, you have pretty female dancers cavorting while a male vocalist performs... I've seen videos like that 10,000 times - if this video is sexist, then so are all of they.

Of course, I'm sure some folks would take EXACTLY that position!

I could only watch the first 20 seconds. What struck me was that they could have just done this commercial with normal people - men, women, different sizes, hopping around with square bottoms. It still would have been stupid, though not as offensive.

Re Gregory: The fact that they used Spongebob made me think that children were included in the target audience. Though I know there is a college contingent that is into Spongebob.

In general, I find the King to be the creepiest advert idea EVER. The mini-burger commercial featuring the squealing ladies who just wove bwaby bwergers makes me want to vomit. BK is just idiotic with their advertising.

Now this. The worst part to me was the measuring of the butts- I don't give a shit who it's targeting. The song- well, that song's been around, and parodied a hundred times. But to tie in Sponge Bob, is a little disturbing. It is mainly a children's show, no matter how broadly enjoyable. This is pretty standard objectification.

That said. What is with the commentors getting mad that the OP said "rumored" to be on primetime and Nick? Do you not know the definition of the word rumor? If anything, saying it was a rumor was THE MOST responsible thing the poster did. That means go investigate it yourself! What a novel idea! This is a blog, after all, not fucking CNN. Please don't say the OP makes it sound like fact. You might as well tell us our twiny wittle wady bwains don't know the difference between rumor and fact. And I say all of this having CONFIRMED that the commercial did air during primetime. You could have done the same with a few clicks of the mouse.

Rant over.

I've seen this commercial during daytime television hours, around 5 pm when judge judy is on. I'm completely appalled. This is almost as bad as their "squeezeable burger" commercial where the camera doesn't even center on the womans face, but her chest as she slightly bends over. DISGUSTING. They're getting worse than carls jr. with their chauvanist ads!

Didn't someone post the ORIGINAL 'Baby Got Back video several moths ago to accompany a piece about Michelle Obama's body?

Weren't those dancers wearing LESS clothing in that video than this clip, which to me, is a bit tongue and cheek and playful? As said by orange, casting men and different actors to dance with square bottoms would have made this funny, instead its just stupid.

This commercial did the incredible: it actually made me regret the fact that I've sworn off all fast food, because it means that I can't actively boycott Burger King for some of their recent ad campaigns.

Of course, even when I was eating fast food, I didn't eat at Burger King. Because Burger King is gross, even by the low, low standards of fast food.

Oh my God! Save the precious snowflakes!! Cover their eyes, stat!

Seriously, if you're worried about your kids getting their tender psyches bruised by watching this, they're not going to survive real well once they're one their own. This ad is just making fun of the song, which pretty much deserves to be made fun of.

Also, this isn't "scantily clad". Unless you're American / Puritan.

Does BK have chickenstrips? Why not create a poster with the king holding a puny chickenstrip where his rooster oughtta be, with other creepy characters using a telescope to check out his strip! LOL.

Okay, I hope I'm not going to get yelled at. When I saw this commercial, admittedly on MTV in the middle of the day, I laughed my ass off. I laughed even harder at the full-length commercial. If you listen to the lyrics, they're really very clever. And, for some context, compare this song to the Kidz Bop versions of rap songs, like "Laffy Taffy" and "Candy Shop." This commercial is nowhere near as egregiously offensive as those are. And, I really don't think the dancing girls are meant to be sex objects. They have BLOCKS for ASSES. They are decidedly UNsexy. Little children will probably laugh because the idea of a square butt is so silly. I mean, that's why I laughed.

Usually, I completely agree that the commercials posted on this site are offensive. But trying to portray this silly parody as a set of gyrating sex objects is a willing refusal to really watch and listen to the commercial. This commercial is selling Spongebob, not sex.

Okay, I hope I'm not going to get yelled at. When I saw this commercial, admittedly on MTV in the middle of the day, I laughed my ass off. I laughed even harder at the full-length commercial. If you listen to the lyrics, they're really very clever. And, for some context, compare this song to the Kidz Bop versions of rap songs, like "Laffy Taffy" and "Candy Shop." This commercial is nowhere near as egregiously offensive as those are. And, I really don't think the dancing girls are meant to be sex objects. They have BLOCKS for ASSES. They are decidedly UNsexy. Little children will probably laugh because the idea of a square butt is so silly. I mean, that's why I laughed.

Usually, I completely agree that the commercials posted on this site are offensive. But trying to portray this silly parody as a set of gyrating sex objects is a willing refusal to really watch and listen to the commercial. This commercial is selling Spongebob, not sex.

I really don't think this is offensive. The measuring just seems to go along with the level and the use of the right angle in the other parts of the commercial. It seems to me that the reason the marketers used only females is because they wanted the King to appear heterosexual. The original video is much worse, but I love that song and that video too. I like the commercial, to be honest.

FWIW, just spotted it at 4:15PM on USA (during Law & Order: SVU).

DAT ASS