You like square whats?

I am a big fan of Spongebob Squarepants. Any mother of a five-year old is most likely aware of his existence in the everyday life of their child. What I am not a fan of, however, is the use of Spongebob to promote a song that really has nothing to do with children. My daughter, who is five, is not even allowed to listen to this Sir Mix-a-lot song, so imagine my dismay when I looked around at the television to find the big butts song pushing kid’s meals. My daughter loves the Burger King kid’s meal. How long will it be before she is going around the house singing, “I like square butts and I cannot lie…”?

Is this something that should disturb me? Well, sure it is. For one thing, I don’t want her listening to any music that objectifies women. I don’t feel that this music does much to further our (women’s)cause and I don’t feel like children have enough life experience and context to understand the music before the words become engrained on their little psyches. So, long before they understand what it means to “like big butts,” they are convinced that they already do.

For another thing, can’t Burger King find a better way to lure children into their restaurants than to substitute their own lyrics to a raunchy adult song like this one? I mean, isn’t this kind of a cheap tactic to employ? Sure, some parents out there might think the song is funny. I even think the song is a little catchy if you don’t listen too closely while you have your brain engaged. But when I really listen to it, I’m somewhat offended and it takes alot to offend me.

I’m not sure how much lower we can sink as a nation if we are going to start marketing to our children through means such as these. What’s next, are they going to try to sell dinosaur toys using a cleaned up version of 2 Live Crew’s big hit, Me So Horny? Tacky, isn’t it? For now, I think we’ll give BK a rest and start taking our kid’s meal business to McDonald’s.

Until next time…

Subscribe to Benston Blogs by Email