Observing the impact of the image of the hip-hop “artist” on our society.
A short time ago, there was a lot of controversy surrounding two Burger King spots. One spot used sexually suggestive music (Sir-Mix-A Lot’s, Baby Got Back) in a video spoof with Sponge Bob, to sell kids meals and the other caused a stir by using a stereotype that was offensive to Mexicans.
On one hand, Burger King should certainly be commended for making the effort of going right to its base (kind of like Sarah Palin), with these ads. However, the imagery used in the ads is misguided and dare I even say, distorted. Instead of connecting with the base, the images have proven to be offensive. After seeing these ads, I was left wondering who produced the ads, who thought they were funny and more importantly – who thought it was okay? Well…
Burger King’s advertising agency is Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which is headquartered in Miami Florida. They are owned by MDC Partners Inc., which is a holding company based in Toronto, Canada and New York.They also have offices in Boulder, Santa Monica and London. They are known for using viral marketing techniques and these are their interns:
If you watch the first minute of this FAIL at funny video, you have watched all 4 minutes of this tasteless video. There is nothing funny, cool or rad about this video. As a matter of fact, it is an EPIC FAIL @ FUNNY. These young people are clearly influenced by hip-hop culture and not in a good way. This is the group of folks who directly influence international marketing campaigns. They have been chosen to "advertise" our culture. Crispin Porter was named Creativity's 2008 agency of the year. Sad.
The SpongeBob Whopper spot...
The Texican Whopper spot...
I'm not an advertising guru or anything like that, but as a consumer with buying power, my message to Crispin Porter (and other "cool" agencies like them) would be - negative parodies of the culture of your base is not how you increase sales. Personally, I can't remember the last time I went to a Burger King.