I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the Burger King ad campaigns... the Whopper Jr. and his friend the flaming chicken thing, the exceedingly creepy King... whoever does the ad-storming for Burger King are clearly a bunch of morons who eat too much fast food. At least, until we get the parody of "Baby Got Back" that merges the cultural stalwart with Spongebob Squarepants. This is actually a sign of improvement.
"Yes, because nothing sells fast food to children better than provocatively-dressed women shaking their asses to a remix of Sir-Mix-a-lot's "Baby Got Back.""
says Feministing blogger Richaro. And while I could get us all bogged down in the correction of music industry lingo (it's not a remix, the mix is exactly the same, right down to Sir Mix doing the new lyrics), I prefer to address the sarcasm that is essentially the only commentary on the commercial.
Guess what. Kids don't have money. They aren't trying to sell to children, they're selling to parents, and while the presence of Spongebob and his square pants (in their various forms) is made to catch the attention of the children so they squeal until mom and dad pay attention.
The other thing is, no asses are being shaken. People don't actually have square butts, that's a piece of foam in those short-shorts and the only thing which is being shaken (you'll notice no titties jiggle, even in the full version), moreover, it's not the dancers who are being exploited but Spongebob himself who, as a cartoon character actually has no agency to violate or exploit.
Speaking of the full version, when you watch it, you can see that it is truly a parody of "Baby Got Back", the video for which, humorous as it was, did exploit women. The only thongs in this video are on Spongebob.
This is one of those instances where we feminists need to have a sense of humor.
No comments:
Post a Comment