Fwd: Tell Nick and Burger King: SpongeBob and Sexualization Don't Mix

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood Reclaiming Childhood from Corporate Marketers Dear Kimberly, Nickelodeon and Burger King have reached a new low. They've partnered to produce a new, highly sexualized, ad for a Burger King SpongeBob SquarePants Kids Meal. The commercial, which randuring the men's NCAA basketball championship last night, features The King singing a remix of Sir Mix-A-Lot's 1990's hit song, "Baby Got Back" with the new lyrics, "I like square butts and I cannot lie." The ad shows images of The King singing in front of women shaking their behinds for the camera intercut with images of SpongeBob dancing along. The King even measures the behind of one of the woman who has stuffed a phonebook under her dress. After the King informs children about the free SpongeBob toy they get with the purchase of a Burger King Kids Meal, the ad ends with Sir Mix-A-Lot, lounging on a couch with two female admirers, saying, "Booty is booty." It's harmful enough when a beloved media icon advertises junk food to children, but it's utterly reprehensible when SpongeBob simultaneously promotes the objectification of women through sexualized imagery. Please take a moment to view the ad for yourself athttp://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/pressreleases/spongebobburgerking.html. If you agree with us that this is an egregious way to advertise a kid's meal -or anything--to children, tell Nickelodeon and Burger King to immediately pull this commercial off the air by visitinghttp://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/621/t/6725/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27008. There is little doubt that Burger King was hoping to court controversy when they produced this ad. The company continually positions itself as an edgier alternative to other fast food chains. But it's one thing to market edginess to adults. It's another to exploit children in the process.  It is simply unacceptable that Burger King is objectifying women and using sexual stereotypes to lure young children to its restaurants.  As for Nickelodeon, it's bad enough that the company profits from using their most popular characters to sell kids on junk food. But to associate a beloved male cartoon character with lechery SpongeBob sends an even stronger message about how little Nick cares about the wellbeing of their devoted audience.  Tell Nickelodeon and Burger King that this ad needs to stop. Now.