Disgusting new Target commercial
By Marc • Jul 28th, 2005 • Category: Pop Culture, the RanterHas anyone else seen the new Target commercial? I’m talking about the back to school “backpack” commercial. I have a real problem with it. It uses a parody of the 80’s song “Baby got back” by rapper Sir-Mix-A-Lot. OK. So what we have here is a song about how much the guy likes to have sex with women who happen to have large proportioned rear ends. Now Target has taken this song and started using it in a marketing campaign aimed at kids and their parents. What are they thinking????
Target, this shows some pretty poor judgment on your part. Don’t get me wrong, you do a lot of great things. Target house is awesome. Plus, you are a competitor of Wal-Mart. You know what they say about the enemy of my enemy. But why are you using a song about perverse sex to sell backpacks to kids? I just don’t understand.
Please contact Target if you feel the same way I do. Their contact info is here.
Marc is a Catholic technology geek living in Tennessee. He blogs at Wild Tangents and is the host of the Catholic Vocations Podcast.
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Are you kidding me? There is NOTHING wrong with this commercial. I am a teacher and I think it is hillarious. NONE of the lyrics are in this from the original song from the 90’s (This song was from the 92, not the 80’s)
Anyway, there is absolutely nothing in this commercial that promotes anything but buying school supplies. Yes, I know how horrible that is.. LOL Give me a break.
You’re allowed your opinion and I’m allowed mine. But I do worry for any youth whose minds you might be shaping as a teacher if all you can do is belittle and laugh at me for not being afraid to state my opinion.
As far as when the song came out, that’s hardly important to the point I was trying to make, so it’s really irrelevant. If it was important, I would have looked it up….
Get over it, nerdo. Go pray about it.
Thanks for the advice…..I think.
Who was I laughing at? I wasn’t laughing at you. I was laughing at the commercial. You stated your opinion and I stated mine. In addition, there are no “big butts” in the commercial only backpacks.
Sorry…Sorry. That was my bad. I was suffering form a long hard day at work. Now that I re-read what you wrote, I can see that you didn’t mean it that way. I tell myself not to “blog angry”, but I should also tell myself not to “comment angry” ;). I apologize for what I said, especially about you being a teacher. You guys are the salt of the Earth and deserve a lot more recognition and compensation than you get.
And how do you know???? Aren’t the backpacks in the way????
But seriously, Target could have very well picked any other song to parody. But they chose one about promiscuous sex. Now in the age we live in, kids have very easy access to the original song. I would hate for kids the age of the ones in the commercial to suddenly start strutting around their school singing the lyrics to the original. And I don’t care how young they are, these days they know what it means.
I understand where you are coming from, but I guess I grew up in that “era” and don’t see a problem with songs like, “Baby, Got Back.” Actually, that song came out when I was in 7th/8th grade and we listened to it at our school dances back in 92/93. Actually, they still play it at the school dances at the school I teach at. Yes, I understand what the lyrics are and what they mean, but the “Baby, Got Back” lyrics are not nearly as bad as the music that they produce and sell today. (and i listen to all that music too) lol
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uh, liking women with big butts is “perverse”?
I never said that. I don’t believe there anything wrong with appreciating the beauty God put in creation, no matter what it is you find beautiful.
What I said was…
Promiscuous sex on the other hand is perverse IMHO and is not something we should be encouraging our children to do.
The commercial is amazing. The first time I saw it I was checking email during commercials and not paying attention to the tv, but I heard a tune that I recognized and started watching. Its great because it attracts all ages. To an older person, we recognize the original song and the creative genius to go from rumps to school supplies. And a child see nothing but kids dancing around in new backpacks to a rap about school. It is now my favorite commercial after the caveman/car insurance.
Anyone have the full lyrics?
Look, I have religious beliefs but c’mon people…do we have to analize EVERYTHING???? I get soooo sick of people thinking they have to analize things to death so that everyone else has to suffer or change their lives to fit in someone else’s opinions or beliefs…ever wonder why so many things have changed since some of us thirty somethings were in school? Its b/c there’s too many other poeple thinking they know whats best for our world and do nothing but complain as if every single thing as we know it is inappropriate…I teach my children to have an open mind about our world and not strangle it to death by uppity bureaucratic opinions…we are living in a free world you know…geeeez!!!!!
Often a person will link a previous idea to a reconstruction of that idea. And so now, for example, you will see people question the use of post-yuppie up-pricing for a previously capital-conscience budget minded “folks” (old Volkswagen beetle vs new VW Beetle). A better example might be Hewlett-Packard’s use of the song “Picture of You” by the Cure to promote their home-photography printers. Purists (of new wave eighties music) will scoff at the band “selling out” to a mainstream corporation. It is, however, an elegant commercial with an appropriate use of all it’s elements.
The Target ad, which connotes the raucous and raunchy hit song, nevertheless doesn’t actually include the original lyrics. As a child the original song is before their time and exists only as a catchy tune. And it’s pretty refreshing to see a bunch a kids jumping around acting like a bunch of kids.
As an adult you are referencing something past that no longer has relevance to this particular season. Other songs that have been used in this same fashion - “These Boots are Made for Walking”, “Hit the Road, Jack”, “Wake Up Little Susie”, and “Lust for Life” - mostly with their inapprpriate lyrics intact.
Is Radio Disney still on the air? You’d probably be surprised by what they play.
uh, liking women with big butts is “perverse”?
Try reading the comments….. I think I cleared this issue pretty well in them.
Everybody is really giving this blogger a hard time, but think about it. In this day of instant access to music via the internet, what’s to stop a 2nd grader from going and downloading the actual song with the real lyrics.
I was in the 5th grade when Baby Got Back came out. I can remember… after listening to that song– being extra aware of boys looking at butts. And in a way it’s funny, but it’s also sad. The sexiness of one’s backside is the last thing a fifth grader should be worried about.
GET A LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UM…Pete. I think the best part of life is standing up for what you believe in. I stated my opinions about this commercial and stand by them. You however have said nothing more than what could be interpreted as an implied insult to me, implied by the fact that I am in need of a life.
If you disagree with my opinion, then say and state why. Any “witty” one-liners such as what you commented is really counter productive.
Marc, what is counter productive is being offended by every little thing in life. When you look at the grand scheme……this is a .00000000000000001 on a 1000000000000000 point scale. But hey, go ahead and complain about everything in life….it will get you far.
Pete - You do realize you’re complaining about my blog post, right?
Pete–
How old are you and do you have a daughter?
IT’S PLAYED ON SHREK PEOPLE…IT’S A KIDS MOVIE AND YES, THE ORIGINAL LYRICS ARE THERE…on to the next “whats prim and proper” gripe…
I loved that commercial. A person would have to own the CD of the song listen to it over and over to find the offensive language. The commercial reminds me of my 3 year old grandson. You must find better things to do with your time. The ad really lightened my day. granny Jan
you guys make me laugh.