Happy 225th Blog Post to me

Blogger has this handy counter I just noticed that told me this would be my 225th blog post. Who knew? OK, Blogger, but anyone else? Not me.

Anyway, is anyone else disturbed by the latest Burger King commercials, which feature the latest kids meal campaign with SpongeBob Squarepants? If you are unfamiliar with SpongeBob, here is a visual:



He is a square sponge, who wears pants. Thus, he has square pants. The commercial features that super creepy king with the giant head, singing a take off on that song "I like big butts and I cannot lie blahblahblah" only he sings "I like SQUARE butts and I cannot lie..." with a bunch of models dressed in skimpy clothes, with big, square butts. I am not kidding. Here is a link to the commercial on YouTube. It is a ridiculous ad campaign. There is so much that is offensive here I don't know where to begin. The highly sexualized content, the possible politically incorrect race related images, that stupid giant headed creepy king? All to sell KIDS MEALS.

Now we have a long standing love of all things SpongeBob in our house. But I am sad about the alliance between Mr. Squarepants and the creepy king, and even more sad by the tone the commercials have taken. I realize that sometimes when you enter into a contract, you lose control over the creative aspects of the process. And SpongeBob is a bit of a niave and wistful character. I am sure he would be embarrassed to some extent by the direction the ad campaign took.

But does BK really think it was a good idea? I have been in focus groups for advertisers. I would like to see the footage of the focus groups they showed these ideas too. Who did they get in the room? Definitely no mothers of kids under 17. I doubt many women were involved at all. And why do they persist in using the creepy king? Almost everyone I know thinks that guy is freaky. And I can't tell you the last time I ate a BK, but I am not inclined to seek them out anytime soon.