MIX-A-LOT'S 'SQUAREBUTT' AD UNDER FIRE: New Burger King spot promoting kids meals criticized by children's group.

      *A children's advocacy group is going after Burger King and rapper Sir-Mix-A-Lot for their new hip hop commercial featuring a spoof of Nickelodeon character SpongeBob Squarepants – who is renamed SpongeBob SquareButt.

       In the 30-second clip, Mix-A-Lot reinterprets his original hit song "Baby Got Back" with new lyrics that start “I like square butts and I cannot lie.” Dancing to the new version is Burger King’s mascot, The King, complete with scantily-clad background dancers with square butts. [Scroll down to watch clip.]

       More than 2,600 members of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood have written to Nickelodeon and Burger King in the past 48 hours, complaining about the commercial, which promotes Burger King’s Kids Meals.       

       “Parents deserve to know whether Nickelodeon—the most popular children’s television network—signed off on the use of SpongeBob in a commercial that celebrates lechery and objectifies women,” CCFC director Dr. Susan Linn told AllHipHop.com in an emailed statement.       

       The spot ran during Monday Night’s Men’s NCAA Championship and has aired on several other stations since. Burger King has stated that the ad was aimed at adults when it originally debuted on the West Coast at 6 p.m. during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship.       

       In their letter, CCFC acknowledged that Burger King was after publicity, but questioned the decisions of Nickelodeon’s top brass.

       “We wonder why a children’s television station like Nickelodeon would want to link one of its most popular and profitable characters to this sort of lechery and objectification of women,” the CCFC letter reads. “That’s why we are asking if you approved the use of SpongeBob in this commercial (and the longer Internet viral video, which is frankly even more disturbing).”

Burger King Spongebob Commercial