Pagliuca and Women’s Butts

I have questions for new senate candidate Stephen Pagliuca, who was quoted in a Business Week article that discussed using women’s butts to sell hamburgers.

You see, Pagliuca is on the board of directors of Burger King, which ran a controversial advertisement linking children’s character SpongeBob with the size and shape of women’s butts.  I personally viewed the ad during family-friendly American Idol.  Here’s how CBS reported on the controversy (if the screen looks blank, hover the cursor over it and click on play):

As a board member, Pagliuca may not have seen the commercial in advance.  However, he almost certainly knew about it afterwards, when Business Week’s Nanette Byrnes reported that

Restaurant owners [franchisees], meanwhile, complain that ads create buzz – the Sponge Bob spot was viewed more than 500,000 times on YouTube – but cost them business. That campaign, which featured the King measuring women’s “square butts” prompted 10,000 angry letters and, owners say, failed to result in higher sales.

In the same article,  Burger King chairman and CEO John Chisdey said:

I think we’ve been doing the right things. I say let’s play it out.

And guess who supported Chisdey?  None other than Stephen Pagliuca, who said:

John’s delivered.  He’s a substance guy and not a flash guy.

So I’ve got some questions for Pagliuca:

• How do you feel about the social consequences of linking demeaning images of women with a children’s character?
• Have you taken or will you take any action as a Burger King board member to prevent further sexist advertising?

Oh, and if he thinks the SpongeBob ad wasn’t sexist, I’d like to ask him to comment on this print ad, which ran in Singapore: