“I'll take an order of fries, a kid's meal, and some sexy women with square butts, please.”
CBS “Early Show” hosts Maggie Rodriguez and Harry Smith giggled at the new commercial for the Burger King kid's meal featuring sexual images inappropriate for children, including sexy women in tight outfits dancing to a parody of the notoriously raunchy tune, “Baby Got Back.”
Aimed to promote the new 99 cent children's meal, Burger King has teamed up with Nickelodeon in a new commercial appearing on adult programs that features the popular cartoon character, SpongeBob SquarePants.
“The Early Show” noted April 10 segment that several parents groups are outraged because the commercial reflects an adult club scene in which the fast food chain's “King” character plays a DJ remixing Sir Mixalot's “Baby Got Back” with the lyrics changed to “I like square butts and I cannot lie.” The “King” character is seen touching and “measuring” a woman's square behind with a tape measure.
The CBS segment was balanced providing viewers with opinions about the commercial from both sides, but that didn't stop co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez from making light of the offensive ad.
Joe Kelly of the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood told viewers, “SpongeBob SquarePants is a character for preschoolers and it's being used in this highly sexualized and objectifies women and that is an incredibly outrageous message to be sending to kids.” CBS included a statement from Burger King about the advertisement saying, “(The ad is aired) only during shows targeting adult audiences … is intended to show that even adults can have fun.”
But instead of serious reflection, Rodriguez laughed about an episode of “Friends” in which the song was featured. “You know watching that, I remembered there is a famous Friends Episode where Ross and Rachel, Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer, are singing to their newborn baby, 'I like big butts and' to their newborn baby, so its, its a good beat,” Rodriguez said. But parents should remember that beat in it's original context.
Sir Mixalot's famously vulgar 1992 hit titled “Baby Got Back” contains lyrics that objectify women by describing their curves and their value as being measured by the “junk in their trunk.” In the original version of the song, there are more than 20 references to a woman's behind and more than ten references to a Sir Mixalot's desire for sex based on the woman's “round thing in your face.”
Rodriguez, who has a young daughter, was not that concerned about the content of the commercial as she admitted to Smith that her daughter enjoys the song.
SMITH: Well, what is the controversy, by the way?
RODRIGUEZ: Because it's, it's a character for preschooler and so they're advertising to preschoolers with “I like square butts?”
SMITH: Right, But I bet your kid likes that song, right its one where she bounces around?
RODRIGUEZ: She can get down, yeah.