BURGER KING COCK ROCK

To Orwell Today,

Dear Jackie,

Recently (July 30th, 2005) I saw a particular Burger King ad on the TV. A band called Coqroq (Cock Rock) was playing a song called "Bob Your Head". If that doesn't hint at the sexual undertones, I don't know what will.

A piece of chicken food was put in a girl's mouth by a guy, in a very phallic sort of way. To top it all off, the new mascot for Burger King, a crowned king with the look of the neo-modern classy Satan gave a burger to a person in bed, and in red text, the screen said WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?.

I think you should do an internet search on this, and see the commercial for yourself. It seems very disturbing to me.

Sincerely,
Nick

Greetings Nick,

Thanks for sending the info on the Burger King commercial. Remind me never to go to Burger King again, even though they've apparently pulled the ad after a very short time on air.

I think the mainstream pornography aimed at children these days in the form of commercials, cartoons, tv programs, video games, movies, magazines, comics, books etc etc is sexual abuse. It never ceases to amaze me that they can get away with this. It seems that there is nothing you CAN'T do to people's kids these days, as long as it's framed in the idea of "freedom of speech" or "sex ed". A person gets the feeling that parents themselves haven't grown up as they so passively accept every amoral onslaught inflicted on their children.

I did a very quick net search and found an article written from the perspective that people who protest about the Burger King ad are over-reacting. And it looks like the only group who complained were women's groups as they feel it degrades women. But it isn't just women (or girls) that are negatively affected by perverted sexual innuendo. It hurts boys and men too, and all of society.

As you know, Orwell talked about this in "1984". See 30.Love Instinct & Family and 25.Prolefeed and 35.The Brotherhood.

It's just another major component of Big Brother's tyrannical rule.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

PS - A further net search finds that a rock band named Slipnot is taking Burger King to court over the Cock Rock ad. See the second article below.

COCK ROCK ADS ON NFL (reader saw oral sex innuendo on Burger King commercial Jan 22, 2006). Go to 25.Prolefeed & 30.Love Instinct & Gay cowboys no big deal in USA (shepherds with their sheep) & Karla woman made snuff movies (helping husband sadistically rape teenage girls including sister)

Burger King's Coq Roq Site Stirs Pot ( But Will It Sell Greasy Chicken Fries?). Business Week, Jul 27, 2005
Here we go again. Just when the hoopla and angst by the taste police over Carl's Jr.'s Paris Hilton online video was starting to abate, Burger King managed to stir debate with the latest online ploy by the talented (Subservient Chicken) ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

BK launched a new website, www.coqroq.com, a site meant to appear as if a heavy metal band of the same name had created it. The site includes videos showing the fictional band members in chicken heads, downloadable ring tones and photo galleries with shots of young girls with handwritten captions like "Groupies love the Coq" and "groupies love Coq." After the site went live on Tuesday, the bawdy captions were erased. Yawn. It was no doubt done to draw attention and unique visits to the site.

The site is well done for what it is, though I can't for the life of me understand why anyone of any age would want to spend much time taking in the "music" of a fake band and videos when the central theme of it all is chicken served at BK. Like I said...yawn. The chicken schtick is supposed to be funny. But what I find hilarious are the deadly serious comments solicited by Advertising Age magazine to spotlight what dreadful fare this website is and how it is setting back women's status to the 19th century.

From Ad Age: "'Just the name Coq Roq in general is offensive to families,' said Aliza Pilar Sherman, an authority and author on women and the Internet and founder of cybergrrl. 'I can't imagine if parents of a smaller child saw this. They’d say they don't want their child exposed to this. Where do we as responsible individuals draw the line? Of course there's freedom of speech but does that mean Burger King should be perpetuating stereotypes, negative attitudes and demeaning behavior to the market.'...'Burger King is perpetuating a crude type of stereotype,' agreed Dr. Martha Allen, director of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press. 'They’re serving junk stereotypes degrading and harmful to women.'

Now, that's funny. The only thing harmful to women in this website is if it prompts them to actually order the chicken fries. I also like the comment in AA's story from a Subway franchisee: 'There's a fine line between getting the attention of the core target and risking offending the masses,' said Chris Carroll, senior vice president and director of marketing for Subway's Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust...

Back to the coq fight. There is nothing more boring than listening to ad critics turned preachers when an advertiser decides to break the mold a bit. Just how many ads and images of grill marks on the chicken breast do we need to see before we all collectively holler: "IT'S CHICKEN. FOR THE SWEET LOVE OF GOD. I GET IT." This business of screeching "oh my, oh my" every time a kid under the age of 15 might be exposed to a sexual overtone is madness. The world, the schoolyard, the summer camp and the workplace is full of sexual overtones. The point is to deal with it appropriately, not seek to ban it from the media. Anyway, if enough people squawk to BK about the site in earnest, they'll change it anyway. But perhaps if parents and teachers actually discuss these things with kids, they wouldn't think they were such a big deal. Imagine, groupies at a heavy metal concert? I, for one was shocked at such a scenario. Paging Claude Rains. And as long as companies like BK push the envelope with this sort of thing, advertisers will give us those opportunities in the way of conversation starters with our kids to talk about what is tasteful and appropriate, not to mention how cruddy the food is.

Slipknot Takes Burger King to Court over Coq Roq. Media Net, Aug 23, 2005
Heavy metal band Slipknot has sent a cease and desist order to executives and advertising agencies of Burger King regarding ads and website featuring Coq Roq, a rock band that has a strong resemblance to Slipknot, reports ChartAttack. "It is obvious that the television advertising and website are designed to conjure up the image and persona of a live performance of Slipknot," the band's attorney Howard Weitzman wrote in a letter to the company. BK has retaliated by filing its own complaint against Slipknot, seeking to have a judge declare that its campaign is fair game. Last month, the campaign drew attention when sexual double entendres appeared on the CoqRoq.com site but were removed overnight. The deleted content included captions under photos of young women that read: "Groupies love the Coq" and "groupies love Coq." The CoqRoq site was created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky of Subservient Chicken fame.

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

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