The interactive aspect of the campaign, which basically entails watching "our shower babe shake her bits to the hits at 9.30am every morning" is that you can vote on the song and the bikini. (So maybe it's not just for 18-25 year-old boys. Because it involves fashion! I vote fried egg bra.)

But okay, we know we're not the demographic for this campaign. As I recently learned, YouTube is the ultimate arbiter of the viral video sensibility (especially when it literally involves bathroom humor!), and the rest of us are a gaggle of idiots who have nothing better to do than to suck the last drop of humor out of life." So what's the word from the people on the audition outtakes the agency calculatedly loaded to YouTube?

Oh. Okay. So it's unanimous.

Singing In The Shower [Burger King UK]
Singing In The Shower Auditions [YouTube]

Related: The Last Word On Method's Horny Shiny Suds [AdRants]

Earlier: Ladyblog Commenters Ruin Everything

Burger King responded to complaints over its ad in Singapore — for the BK Super Seven Incher depicting a woman about to orally receive all seven inches of the sandwich with the text "It'll blow your mind away" — by saying it:

…did not run in the U.S. or any other markets…and generated positive consumer sales.

While Hardees defended its "Name Our Holes" campaign by reinforcing our initial hunch that these holes are intended for the mouths of gay men by saying:

…intended to communicate the core message of our premium quality food to our target audience of Young, Hungry Guys.

Earlier: Blow Job Jokes Abound With Gross New BK Ad
Junk Food

Under the image of a woman in profile with her mouth wide open, staring blankly at something in the distance above an approaching seven-inch burger, the ad reads:

Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled with the NEW BK SUPER SEVEN INCHER. Yearn for more after you taste the mind-blowing burger that comes with a single beef patty, topped with American cheese, crispy onions and the A.1. Thick & Hearty Steak Sauce.

This ad does not just hint at sex, it bashes you over the head with lame puns and heavy-handed double entendres worthy of the Todd. To make matters worse, the woman about to receive the "hot beef injection," as one commenter here put it, is made up to look like a blow-up doll. She is expressionless, a blank slate on which we are supposed to project our (assumed to be masculine, of course) desires. Unlike the "2 Girls 1 Sub" video from Quiznos, which is its very own brand of nasty, or the new Burger King ad with Audrina Patridge, or even that Carls Jr. ad, the woman here is not excited about the giant sandwich looming near her face. She is empty and submissive, as pliable as a plastic doll. Strangely enough, it doesn't make us very hungry.

The association of meat and sex is nothing new of course, as feminist vegetarian theorist Carol J. Adams has shown time and again. In an interview published on her website, Adams says,

Everyone is affected by the sexual politics of meat. We may dine at a restaurant in Chicago and encounter this menu item: "Double D Cup Breast of Turkey. This sandwich is so BIG." Through the sexual politics of meat, consuming images such as this provide a way for our culture to talk openly about, and joke about, the objectification of women without having to acknowledge it. The sexual politics of meat also works at another level: the ongoing superstition that meat gives strength and that men need meat. There has been a resurgence of "beef madness" in which meat is associated with masculinity.

Adams' argument applies on several levels here. The ad displays both the meaty sandwich and the female body as objects ready for masculine consumption. The woman in the ad is not meant to enjoy the burger, for this is not about her. Like the meat, she is a thing to be consumed, a thing that will provide the viewer with a hearty dose of masculinity and virility. In an interesting twist, this ad, which is clearly intended to sell a piece of meat to straight men, also presents the phallic stand-in as something desirable. Men are supposed to see this image and think something along the lines of: "I like BJs and burgers, cuz I'm a real man. I need some BK," yet the ad makes the meat into a sexualized, fetishized masculine object.

Several other blogs have weighed in on this particular ad. Copyranter says:

Well, this ad via Singapore for the BK Super Seven Incher is the new leading "most overtly blow-jobby ad" I've ever seen, surpassing this one, this one, and even this one. Nice misogynistic touch making the woman look like a fucking blow-up doll. Note the Photoshopped-enhanced creamy white mayo.

A debate has sprung up on Flickr about this image, with one commenter being labeled a "annoyinghypersensitivefeministbitch" for failing to understand that the ad is actually "funny and sexy." Commenter "photo.envy" responds:

Sexy is a state of mind. There's a difference in being sexual and being used as an object of want to sell burgers. Objectification is the difference.

Fast Food News doesn't like it much either:

We've seen more suggestive advertising, to be sure, but this one just seems to be poorly executed AND in bad taste (and probably tastes bad, too).

We're not convinced about that last part, but if showing a sandwich dripping with mayo aimed for the mouth of a lifeless woman isn't in bad taste, we don't know what is.

The New King of Blow Job Ads [Copyranter]
Copy Conundrums: BK's New Ad Hints At Fellatio [Media Bistro]
How Many Cliches In One Ad? I Think We Can Do Better [YesbutNobutYes]
It'll Blow [Flickr]
BK's Suggestive 7 Incher Ad [Fast Food News]
Audrina Patridge Gives Good Burger In New Ad [People]
Carol J. Adams [Official Website]

Related: Quiznos Wants People To Associate Their Sandwiches With Poop, SpongeBob Meets Sir Mix-A-Lot In New Burger King Ads

Set to a remix of Sir Mix-a-Lot's famous ode to the well endowed, "Baby Got Back," and featuring girls in tight shorts dancing with the King, the ad certainly does sexualize SpongeBob. As the King sings about his love for square butts, and his desire to "get with" SpongeBob, ladies dance provocatively, shaking their phone-book-enhanced derrieres. At the end of the 30-second ad, Sir Mix-a-Lot appears lounging on a couch with two ladies and says, "booty is booty."

The ad was created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and aired during the NCAA men's basketball championship and other programming on Monday night. It has already come under fire from the Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood, who see the commercial as using sex to sell food to children. CCFC director Susan Linn said: "It's bad enough when companies use a beloved media character like SpongeBob to promote junk food to children, but it's utterly reprehensible when that character simultaneously promotes objectified, sexualized images of women."

There is no doubt that this ad uses sexualized images of women to promote a product meant primarily for kids, but in our porn-ified culture, this is, sadly, not all that shocking. However, the ad is notable for its pure insanity. The longer music video version (shown at left) really brings the crazy. The King goes around measuring the angles and width of women's square butts while asking SpongeBob to "shake that cubicle butt." Even though it features scantily-clad women, the song seems to be about the King's lust for SpongeBob's ass. It is creepy, it makes no sense, and parents are not happy:

"No parent watching a major sporting event with their children should have to worry about being assaulted by sexualized imagery," said Joe Kelly of TheDadMan.com, a CCFC Steering Committee Member. "Featuring SpongeBob in an ad like this is a new low. Parents who hope to instill values in their children like respect for women would do well to steer clear of Burger King and Bikini Bottom."

However, no matter what you think about it, the ad does accomplish its goal: people are talking, and they are talking about Burger King. BrandFreak calls it a "boneheaded move" by SpongeBob, "unless he's trying to put to rest the long-simmering rumors that he's gay."

Outcry just beginning over BK's square-butts ad for kids' meals [BrandFreak]
Burger King sexes up square butts for kids [AdFreak]
CCFC to Nick and Burger King: SpongeBob and Sexualization Don't Mix! [CCFC]

While Burger King's recent attempts at surreal edginess — "Whopper Virgins," anyone? — aren't going to raise many eyebrows, the fact that "Whopper Sacrifice" involved a notification that you'd been cut for a burger caught Facebook's attention: as everyone knows, people aren't normally told when you un-friend them, one of the few things that keeps the delicate ecosystem functioning. And, not unexpectedly, the scrutiny has opened something of a philosophical can of worms: what is a "friend?" Should you cull ruthlessly, or be generous? And what's the protocol? Justifies a marketer behind "Whopper Sacrifice" to the NY Times, “It seemed to us that it quickly evolved from quality of friends to quantity...which was interesting to us because it felt like the virtual definition of a friend became something different than the friends that you’d want to hang out with.”

Well, yeah. Nowadays those who keep their lists down to an exclusive circle of real friends are in the minority; even if you don't solicit friends yourself you're likely to be found by random elementary-school classmates or old coworkers — and it seems unkind to deny someone who's taken the time to search you out! Most people I know maintain an "everyone within reason" policy and have resigned themselves to distancing Facebook from anything truly personal. And among people under 20, it's standard for "friend" lists to top 300. Some folks I know feel somewhat misled; at first they accepted all requests because they felt honored; now, a year later, they see these relationships as reflections of a culture's diminishing currency.

And then the editing starts. Some Facebook expert tells the Times he "recommends culling your friend list once a year to remove total strangers and other hangers-on. Keeping your numbers down gives you more leeway to be selective about whom you approve in the first place." Part of the rationale for this discrimination is that, as a piece in today's Wall Street Journal makes clear, sites like Facebook are increasingly prone to hacking. "The popularity of social networks and social media sites has grabbed the attention of cyber crooks searching to pilfer passwords, called "phishing," and steal sensitive personal information. The hackers are exploiting users' sense of safety within these sites," and a smaller network could mean, hypothetically, a smaller risk.

But, at this juncture, is such an approach really practical? Whatever people wanted Facebook to be, now isn't it what it is: less a portrait of who you are than a loosely-drawn map of your history, your interests, your associations? Does anyone go to someone else's page expecting to see only bosom friends? No: for the most part you assume you're seeing a collection of friends, acquaintances and strangers, and we've become as adept at reading and interpreting these as a more straight-forward breakdown. If you want privacy, quite frankly, don't join a networking site anymore. As to unfriending, I get it, but it does seem to me a tad cowardly: much more honest, it seems, to reject someone in the first place. Whopper or not.

Friends, Until I Delete You [New York Times]

Beware of Facebook 'Friends' Who May Trash Your Laptop [Wall Street Journal]

Burger King Under Fire For Whopper Virgins Taste Test Challenge [Telegraph]

• Nicole Richie and Joel Madden did not get married this weekend, despite reports by Star magazine that they were having a $2 million wedding. But! Joel did post fake wedding pictures on his band's blog with a message that read: "I've been getting calls and texts from my family all week asking me why they weren't invited to my wedding. I guess the only answer I could give them was that I didn't know we were having one." In the pix, he and Nicole are gorillas. [E!]
• Amy Winehouse agreed to sing at the party of a Russian billionaire, but when she showed up in Moscow, she was "in no condition" to appear on stage. Organizers spent two hours trying to pull her together, and a source says "she put on a terrific show." [Rush & Molloy]
• You may have heard that Scarlett Johansson and Barack Obama have an e-mail relationship: But did you know that Scarlett's brother Hunter works for the senator? [Page Six]
• M.I.A., whom this paper calls a "lady rapper," is engaged! Check out her bling. [Rush & Molloy]
• Tim Russert's heart was enlarged. [People]

• Ashanti says that she and Nelly are "good friends," who might get engaged in the future. [People]
• Kate Hudson and Lance Armstrong: Hanging out in Canada, where Lance was in a fund-raising bike ride. [People]
• NCIS actress Pauley Perrette is asking the public to help find her missing friend. "Her purse was found at one end of Runyon Canyon with all the contents in it; her jewelry was found in another part of Runyon Canyon," says Perrette. [E!]
• This picture of David Beckham talking to Didier Mbenga of the L.A. Lakers is high-larious. [ONTD]
• Has Lily Allen given up partying??? [Mirror]
• Princess Eugenie: Seen frolicking naked on school grounds. [Daily Mail]
• Snoop Dogg's wife was busted for DUI over the weekend, and from the looks of her mugshot, she was wasted! [TMZ]
• Kid Rock was hospitalized for stomach cramps and dehydration over the weekend. [TMZ]
• At her baby shower, pregnant 24 actress Mary Lynn Rajskub jumped into the swimming pool to beat the heat. [People]
• Mary-Louise Parker broke her toe during a love scene for Weeds. "I smashed it on the bed frame," she says. [People]
• Britney Spears and Kevin Federline were both in Vegas over the weekend, though they apparently didn't run into each other. Kev was honored as Father Of The Year; Brit had father's day dinner with her dad. Where were the kids? [People]
• Sean Connery was in the hospital Friday for a fractured ankle he suffered while playing golf. How does that happen? Don't you just hit the ball as far as you can and then get in a little car and chase it? [Star]
• A Hindu leader wants Mike Meyer's new movie, The Love Guru, to have an NC-17 rating. Says Bhavna Shinde: "From the information available about the movie, it appears to be mocking and ridiculing Hinduism, Hindu philosophy, ashram life, Hindu concepts and terminology, Gurus, etc. Cinema is a powerful medium and it can create stereotypes in the minds of some audiences, especially in the minds of younger audiences, who are passing through an impressionable phase." [Punjab Newsline]
• Is actor Michael Madsen is being a total pain in the ass on his new movie? [Rush & Molloy]
• What are all of the kids from the School Of Rock now? Find out! [ONTD]
• Legendary actor Richard Dreyfuss: Seem "ogling the bare-breasted talent" at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club. [Page Six]
• Is anyone sorta curious about Kit Kittredge: An American Girl'? Starring Abigail Breslin? At the premiere, Abigail said, "I'm excited to see all the girls, and welcome the boys who come too!" Boys? Really? [ET]
• Keira Knightley's mom says Keira is not anorexic, and that she "eats like a horse." "She has always been thin. She's her daddy's daughter, with his long body." [The Sun]
• The Sun has apologized for a false story it printed about Rhys Ifans punching Sienna Miller's friend and co-star Matthew Rhys. [The Sun]
• Dr. Oz from Oprah — getting his own show. [UPI]
• Does Hugh Laurie have a Burger King Gold Card? Does he get limitless supply of free burgers? Do all celebs get one? So. Jealous. Hate to miss a Whopportnity. [ONTD]

The WSJ blogs about The New Republic writing about how Freakonomics has ruined Economics. Steven Levitt's response is incredibly thorough and well put — NOT! We'd side with TNR on this one because we hated the 2.7 chapters we read of Freakonomics, but we can't really hate on economists for being "addicted to cleverness" when we're so addicted to... oh yeah, carbohydrates. [WSJ]

Macy's beats out Microsoft for the M ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange. This is fucking retarded, as far as we're concerned, namely because Bill Gates is practically Angelina when it comes to giving away money, and Federated Department Stores' name has only been "Macy's" for about five seconds, and well basically because Macys'. Totally. Sucks. [WSJ]

Chick-food hating Burger King does a solid for chicks, proverbial and actual, vowing to buy pork and eggs only from suppliers who vow not to keep their animals in crates and cages. [NYT]

"Ma'am, we're not going to go down there and enforce your Western Bacon Cheesburger."