There is a lot that shouldn't be aimed at kids...but this commerercial is really THE LEAST OF IT.
Wrong. That ad is using sex to market a product DIRECTLY to children and it's incredibly inappropriate especially considering the context of the original song.
I think that Family guy or those other shows are much much more inappropriate for kids....yet every kid I see is watching it...with their parents no less !
Really??? Where??? And how the Hell would you know? What are you doing? Hanging out in the bushes at your neighbor's houses and looking in their windows and then taking notes? That'll get you arrested. I love when people make grand claims like "every kid I see is watching it with their parents" and people just nod their heads in agreement on cue when in reality, they have no idea what goes on in anyone's home but their own. FG has had a content disclaimer at the beginning of every episode since it aired in 1999 and has traditionally been aired in the later prime time 9:00 - 9:30 time slot (first run) and either gets a TV-MA or TV-14 rating. As much as I'm sick of FG in general it has never been been marketed toward children so I'm a little tired of BS claims like this. Simply because something is animated, doesn't mean its target audience is children. The fact is that most parents are responsible and don't expose their kids to FG and other age-inappropriate material and for the most part, the major networks have tried (although I freely admit that they often fail) to keep the content appropriate for a more mature audience clearly marked and air it during the later hours.
The problem with this ad as I see it is that the product itself is a
KID'S MEAL with Sponge Bob, a character wildly popular with kids between the ages of 2 - 10 that
is on a
children's network (unlike Cartoon Network, but I'll get to that in a moment) and the commercial airs on
that network during the middle of the morning and afternoon. IMHO, parents shouldn't have to worry about monitoring Nickelodeon, Noggin or any other children's network at 11 a.m.
And let's talk about that "adult swim" that's on a kids cartoon network....!!!???
First, what part of "Adult" is lost on you? Second, Cartoon Network is not called the
"Kids Cartoon Network" and has
never exclusively marketed their programming toward children. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't begin until 11:00 P.M., 10:00 P.M. at the earliest. For the record, I'm not carrying a torch for Adult Swim. I watch it regularly and enjoy a lot of the programming but AS actually forced me to do something that I thought I'd never do in my life: file a complaint with the FCC over obscene content. So understand where I'm coming from. AS isn't appropriate for children on its best day, but it's irrelevant to the discussion because it's not marketed toward children.
And the videos today -- have you seen them where the broads are barely clad...not to mention the foul lyrics -- I could go on and on (and on) .....but I'm in a good mood so I'll spare everybody
No argument there, but the big difference is that parents can and know to make a conscious decision to avoid MTV, VH1 and BET to limit their children's exposure. How the hell are you expected to do that for a commercial that randomly pops up on Nick Jr. during
Yo Gabba Gabba or
The Wonderpets?