Nickelodeon in 1999. The series has since become one of the longest-running American animated series with 12 seasons (and a 13th one already confirmed), and has also expanded to other media, most notably film and video games.
SpongeBob SquarePants follows the daily adventures of the title character – a sea sponge who actually looks like kitchen sponge – alongside his best friends quality has been in decline for years now, SpongeBob SquarePants continues to be quite popular among both children and adults. Of course, a TV show that has been active for so long can’t be safe from controversy, and SpongeBob SquarePants has had its fair dose.
It’s clear that the series is aimed at children, even if it has a pretty solid fan base of adults and the show has managed to include a couple of jokes that only grown ups can catch. Still, every piece of marketing for the show will be aimed at a much younger audience – or, at least, that’s how it should be, as it appears that Burger King missed the memo on that.
SpongeBob SquarePants’ Burger King Commercial Controversy
In 2009, Burger King released a commercial to sell its kids meal with SpongeBob SquarePants toys. Nothing out of the ordinary on that, except the ad was not what you would expect from a product aimed at children. The commercial is a parody of Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back”, only that this one talks about “square butts”, with the King singing and surrounded by dancers dressed as SpongeBob, wearing – you guessed it – ”square butts”. Needless to say, the ad ended up being quite controversial, with the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood calling it out for sexism and being inappropriately sexual, considering SpongeBob’s target audience are young children.
Burger King tried to dodge the bullet by saying the ad was, in fact, aimed at parents – which didn’t make sense as they were trying to sell a product for children with the help of a cartoon for children. The now infamous Burger King Spongebob SquarePants themed ad lives in the memories of those who caught it at the time – and the internet, as it can be easily found nowadays. The reaction to it hasn’t changed much, only that viewers now laugh at it rather than get offended or be shocked. After all, stranger things have happened since, even within the universe of SpongeBob SquarePants, and the show has been involved in other, completely different controversies.