Burger King blows. Pun intended.
Have you all seen the new Burger King ad for its new, monstrously sized “seven incher” sandwich? It’s disturbing on a variety of levels. Especially the obvious ones. See for yourself:
Lovely.
Apparently an ad agency in Singapore came up with that stellar piece of crude misogyny. Uh…kudos? Good grief. Fortunately, Devan over at Bust Magazine felt compelled to respond:
The King Could Be Compensating, Just Maybe
This ad is so mind-blowingly (heh) offensive and slack that I can feel myself getting dumber as I write this. It manages to desecrate both burgers and blow-jobs–and as an erstwhile fan of both, and a defender of the ladies, it leaves me triply outraged and left with the same greasy sense of empty calories and broken promises that fast food so often delivers. I love a dick joke as much as the next girl, but, in the words of Gob-COME ON!
http://rlv.zcache.com/come_on_tshirt-p235674413508025583tdf9_210.jpg
Why would looking at a vacant, armless, dead-eyed woman about to choke on a massive sandwich make me want one? Or a man want one? (Is the one a sandwich or a blow-job?) I think this ad could be a minefield of confusion for a dude–am I hungry? Horny? Is my junk actually a sandwich masquerading as a penis? This explains that embarrassing mess on the subway!
Oh, and I am officially calling shenanigans on the whole ‘it’s a foreign ad agency/affiliate, so it’s not our bad’ excuse. The problem with ads like these, in my opinion, isn’t that they try to use sexy images and words to sell a product. My problem is that they do so in such a joyless, exploitative, unfunny, and unclever way. My problem is that they make the cheap and desperate choice to use women’s subjugation as a punchline. My problem is that as a female consumer I am told to be pretty, sit still, and open wide. My problem is that ‘have it your way’ means ‘have it your way if you are a misogynist male.’
I wouldn’t eat that crap if they were giving it away for free, but this is really disgusting. She looks like a blow up doll.
Yeah, I saw that. It’s horrific. Is there really such a dearth of true creativity?
I’m going to ignore the fact that this particular ad is rude and degrading and just go ahead and say that I LOVE the fact that “Devon” chose to reference Gob from Arrested Development. That’s great! And yes,…. she does look like a blow-up doll, which I’m assuming was completely purposeful.