Maybe it's just because parenthood is looming on the horizon or something, but I've pretty much had it with Burger King. I don't eat fast food that often, but I do enjoy the Burger King sandwiches and I love me some Mocha Joe. However, here's the thing- their marketing director should be drawn and quartered for the sake of society's children. (I'm not actually advocating physically harming the person.)
First came the incredibly inappropriate SpongeBob Squarepants commercial which parodied the 80's song, "Baby got back" which prominently featured young "ladies" with what appeared to be phonebooks in their skin tight pants shaking it for all their worth. Way to promote a kid's meal guys.
I promptly decided to boycott Burger King until the ad was removed. This morning, on the way back from my MRI, I had to grab something to eat quick so I could take my medicine. I hadn't seen the ad in a while, so I declared the boycott over and stopped at Burger King. Lo and behold, they are no longer featuring SpongeBob, they are now giving away Star Trek toys. Now on the surface I don't have a problem with that- I watched Star Trek as a kid- but then I started thinking. Generally speaking, the Kid's Meals are eaten by kid's about 10 and under. Star Trek was rated PG-13. Do we see the problem there?
In fact Common Sense Media ran an article on it.
But my question is this, are they marketing to young, or are they taking things they know kids'll enjoy and making them to sexual and/or violent so they get the higher ratings? And do parents ignore the ratings and let their kids watch? Or are the marketing campaigns not working on the kids?
Just curious.
4 comments:
Thank you for saying what I should have said long ago. I am not a prude by any means, but I was totally turned off by the SpongeBob commercial!
The very phrase " I like square butts" used at the start of that commercial was enough to cause me to completely stop giving any business to Burger King at all.
There is enough trash on the airways as it is, and we should NOT support any that is used to promote to children, IMHO!
Totally with you on this one - but then I despise all fast food generally speaking. It tastes worse to me all the time - not that I have it more than once or twice a year, and only then if there is just no other alternative. I though that commercial just stunk!
I agree and I don't think it's being prudish when it comes to what children are subjected to on tv. For that matter, I don't think I'm being prudish when I censor what I see.
I was asked today at my library to give horror video suggestions for a 6 year old who wanted "Chuckie" videos...when some stupid goober regular suggested Saw, I turned to him in horror while the 6 year old proclaimed he had already seen it!
Yes, they are definitely marketing to parents who don't care what their children are subjected to for convenience sake. Don't even get me started on how now they are selling M&M's using sex.
Bridgette
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