Burger King is a fast food company and it uses the ad to promote a seven-inch long burger. In order to emphasize the long length of the burger and catch potential buyers’ attention, a woman’s face with wide-opened eyes and an opened round-shape red mouth is positioned side way to the lengthy burger. The woman’s mouth is highlighted with the red color and it is in line with one end of the lengthy burger. The woman’s facial expression expresses that she is surprised by how large the burger is. In addition, as the woman’s mouth is made smaller than the burger on the ad, the scale also stresses the burger’s bigness. Some shadow is used around the woman and the lengthy burger for two purposes. The first purpose is to highlight the woman and the lengthy burger. The second purpose is to imply that the surrounding is inappropriate for the public to see. It is because it seems like the woman is undressed, which could mean that she is doing something that is inappropriate to do in a public space. Overall, the image as a whole may make readers think the lengthy burger resembles a men’s penis and the event is oral sex, which is consistent with the capitalized line in large font—“IT’LL BLOW YOUR MIND AWAY” and the line on the right upper corner beside the burger king logo— “IT JUST TASTES BETTER”. It is problematic for a burger ad to be associated with sex and objectification of women because burgers are for everyone, including youth and young kids.
Jammed Version of Ad
Brief Written Explanation
I jammed the Burger King ad aims to highlight the absurdity through the following steps. First, I added a muscular male body that positions side way so that the lengthy burger is attached to the body. In this way, the lengthy burger looks more like a representation of a man’s penis. The reason why I chose a muscular male body is because it will look more appropriate with the large male body part (i.e. the lengthy burger) and it will exaggerate the sexism aspect of the ad. Second, for the capitalized line in large font, I replaced “mind away” with the word “mouth” in bold and black font so that it will stand out to readers even at a distance. When readers see the jammed version of Burger King ad, they will get a clear impression of oral sex through seeing a muscular male body with an attached lengthy burger, a woman’s amazed and surprised face with wide opened eyes and a red opened mouth, and the word “mouth”. It is unfortunate that it looks like the woman has to do the blowjob even if she does not want to because the muscular man has the power to control and lead. Therefore, the jammed Burger King ad highlights sexism, gender inequality, and objectification of women. Neither of the original nor the jammed ad should be used as a burger ad for the public because they convey injurious social messages to all age groups. The government should hire some people to assess commercial ads before the ads can be released to the general public.
