In recent weeks there has been a huge outcry over the Burger King “Square Butts” commercial.
Admittedly, the first time I saw it on TV my initial thought was “that’s a pretty dumb commercial” and later in the commercial I thought “what does this have to do with food” and “what are they advertising?”. In the end, what they advertise is the Burger King children’s meal.
(full video)
In the minds of advertisers only? It does seem to be a case of that. When BK began receiving complaints about the inappropriateness of this commercial, their reply was “that it was targeted at adults, not at children”.
The shortened version with the kids meal at the end:
That being the case, why does it advertise a children’s meal? Most likely, there aren’t a lot of adults (men for certain) who would buy themselves a kid’s meal. There’s a slight possibility that they are (or they think they are) targeting “adults” because it’s the parents (hopefully, adults) who purchase the meals for their kids.
If they really were (which seems highly doubtful) targeting adults, their marketing campaign has failed with a big fat “F”, because it’s the adults who are complaining, and it’s the adults who are indicating they now refuse to take their children to Burger King anymore.
In analyzing (loosely) the commercial and it’s “ideas” I have to agree that it is slightly inappropriate when viewed from an adult perspective (me…all I can think of when I see that commercial is taking a bite out of someone’s butt, which frankly is not appetizing). Adults see the sexual connotations, I think, much more readily than most children would. The mind of an adult sees and interprets things on a different level than children. The majority of children aren’t likely to make connections like that on their own, but may see it when a parent or older child points it out.
That being said, regardless of who the target audience really was, the necessity of having women in tight clothes as the major participants in the dance is more of a problem. Having a mix of men and women and children (ie: families) in the commercial as opposed to beautiful girls (one at least in a very tight dress) might have changed the whole tone of the commercial to something more acceptable to both adults and children.
For me, the scariest part of the commercial (in fact, of all BK commercials) is the “King”. Frankly, he scares the beejeebies out of me. Much like the evil clown “Pennywise” in Stephen King’s “It”. The “King” does not speak – ever. He’s just plain spooky. If he met me at the doorway of Burger King (which we don’t generally eat at anyway) I’d turn around and run. Scary dude.
Anyway, here I’m going to ask anyone reading this what their thoughts are – on an intelligent level. Please don’t post rants. If one does an internet search on this subject there are hundreds of blogs and articles about this commercial – the vast majority of them are against the commercial, while are some are a little more circumspect. Here’s an example of one that isn’t just a “rant” but is reasonably well thought out:
and here, a link to the “About.com” website on Kid’s TV, and here at “Complaints Board.com” is how NOT to handle your displeasure. And, for those who just have to complain, the place to do it is at the Burger King official site, which can be found HERE.
And, I’m also going to ask – for those who haven’t discussed this commercial with their children to simply ask their kids what they (the kids themselves) think of the commercial – without the parent putting thoughts into their heads. It will be interesting, and probably enlightening to some, to understand what the kids see when they watch it. So – post your comments but keep it clean.
