Posted on 05/24/2005 11:24:34 AM PDT by Borges
The Force may - or may not - be with Burger King's latest Star Wars-themed Kids Meals.
One day after a record-shattering weekend for Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, an advocacy group is asking Burger King to stop the tie-in of its Kids Meals with the film because it is rated PG-13.
The same group, Dove Foundation, got McDonald's 13 years ago to apologize for "confusion" from its promotion of PG-13 Batman Returns with Happy Meals. Now, it's going after BK's latest Kids Meal promotion - targeted at kids ages 4 to 9. The meals feature characters from Sith or other Star Wars films.
"When Burger King puts that in a Kids Meal, there's an implicit endorsement of the movie," says Dick Rolfe, chairman of Dove Foundation.
This is no small matter. Product licensing and promotion is a $100 million annual business. Since the first Star Wars was released in 1977, the six films have racked up almost $9 billion in merchandise sales and product promotions.
For Burger King, the stakes are huge. The No. 2 burger chain is in the 16th month of a major rebound. The Star Wars promotion, dubbed "Choose Your Destiny," is the 50-year-old chain's first global promotion.
Burger King officials insist the promotion isn't specific to the latest film (the others are rated PG), but one that relates to the chain's long-term relationship with the Star Wars franchise. Executives point out that only four of the 31 Kids Meal toys are specific to Sith.
The toys "clearly celebrate not just one film but the entire Star Wars saga," says Edna Johnson, a Burger King spokeswoman. "The reception at our restaurants and from our customers has been overwhelmingly positive."
But Rolfe says "the tie-in is very specific to this film." Wrappers around Kids Meal toys all promote Sith, he notes.
Dove Foundation, a non-sectarian family advocacy group, sent an overnight letter to Burger King last Thursday requesting the promotion be stopped. It also conducted a national phone survey of 889 adults and says 83% felt the promotion was not appropriate for kids.
Another critic says the fault isn't that of Burger King but Star Wars creator George Lucas. "It's irresponsible of George Lucas to OK the marketing around this PG-13 movie to young children," says Susan Linn, a Harvard psychologist and author of Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood.
"Star Wars is broader than a single movie," says Lynn Fox, a LucasFilm spokeswoman. "Parents know that Star Wars has been a positive influence."
Let me reword my comment.
I love star wars. The gore (and story line for that matter) in Sith made it a bad movie. I was not happy after seeing it. It just does not fit in with the rest of the movies.
As a parent with a young daughter I can watch the other star wars without any problem.. except sith. So I think lucas blew it.
We saw it, and I didn't think it was very bad. My kids are 8 and 10 and had no problems with the movie.
One of the reasons for the PG-13 rating is because Anakin kills "younglings" at the Jedi Temple, but he killed kids in episode 2 also.
Also at the end, Anakin looks pretty gross after he gets burned up.
It doesn't have any stupid kid stuff like the Ewoks or Jar Jar Binks, but I was okay with that.
BK is free to do whatever they want - families with young kids shoud eat Mcd's if they want to avoid the violence of the film. (and need to eat such junk)
I would trust an advocacy group of parents as much as (and probably more than) the hollyweirdos.
Sorry, that wasn't a traumatic child birth, and they didn't show much more than her grimmacing. However, she dies afterwords. They didn't even show her dieing.
Welcome to FR
Well in terms of the SW universe it is. :-)
I think Star Wars was much tamer than the movies you described. Plus there's no cussing in Star Wars or other adult dialogue in Star Wars.
Jar Jar and the Ewoks were horrible. However, there was still plenty of violence in those movies. The violence was just presented less graphicaly. A movie can be dark and moving, while still getting a PG rating.
In episode one someone was cut in half (via special effects).
In episode two many winged humanoids were cut to pieces in close combat, and Skywalker had his arm cut off.
There was plenty of violence, just not lots of gore.
Violence seems to get movies a PG rating. Gore, vulgarity, or nudity appears to be what pushes movies to PG-13 or R. I haven't seen Episode 3 yet, but I wonder why they couldn't keep it PG.
The best part of the commercial is the absolutely inane and creepy grin on the King's face, and that his breathing is as amplified and raspy as Vader's.
"Brent Bozell has done more to expose and catalog the fraud of the MSM than any group of folks I can think of."
Yes and he should stick to the "MSM" and leave entertainment alone--and not try to do stupid things like drive WWF Smackdown off the air. BTW Vince McMahon sued Bozell's a$$ off too, so now that bluenozed PTV organization (Bozell's front) can't even mention Smackdown in its listings. PTV.org is basically a bunch of people who sit around waiting for the word "penis" to be mentioned in a sitcom (or blood to be shown in a crime drama) and then shoot off letters to the shows' sponsors threatening boycott. I guess the Brentster never heard of an "off" button.
Do tell.
Go Mcdonalds Go
I agree. That's why I said that if his child had been OK with the others, than they would probably be OK with Star Wars.
He's an angry dwarf.
Great answer to my post. Very comprehensive. You deconstructed my argument point by point. I stand in awe. ROTFLMWAO!!
Because the most important theme is Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader, both spiritually and physically. We need to know that once he decides to follow Palpatine he will willingly murder children, and we need to see the extent of his injuries in order for his cyborg body replacement to be understandable. RotS is not a happy fun movie like Episode I, and it's much better because of it.
But hey, we all have our vices...
My only problem with taking my charming 8 year old daughters is that one of them thinks that Anakin is "good-looking". She also likes Legolas from Lord of the Rings.
She is going to be trouble when she's a teenager.
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