A LITTLE SPICY MEXICAN AND AN ANACONDA THAT DON'T WANT NONE UNLESS YOU GOT SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS BUNS, HON

According to Reuters, Burger King has apologized for its "Texican Whopper" campaign and vowed to change it after Mexico's ambassador to Spain said that the commercial (see above video) offends Mexicans.

The ambassador, whose name isn't worth mentioning in any news article, suggested that BK's new commercial -- in depicting a tall Texan cowboy with a short Mexican wrestler -- "improperly used the stereotypical image of Mexicans."

Let's put aside the issue of whether Burger King is seriously suggesting that the diminutive swimming wrestler is a typical image of a Mexican person.

And let's ignore the fact that the Mexican ambassador has a hundred more important things to demand international attention to, starting with, oh, the horrendous environmental and labor conditions in today's Mexican maquiladoras and ending with, shall we say, the failure of the United States to honor the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Here's my question: Is it really a "stereotypical image of Mexicans" to portray them as short?

As an East Asian, perhaps I'm territorial about all the vertically-challenged stereotypes. (In Lost in Translation, look at Bill Murray towering over all the Japanese men in the elevator. Ha ha ha!)

This makes me wonder ... when Emmanuel "Webster" Lewis did all those Burger King commercials in the '80s, did anybody accuse the BK Lounge of promoting a stereotype that all black people are short?

If anything, the Mexican ambassador should be offended about Burger King's other current advertising campaign ...



Granted, the above commercial has nothing to do with Mexicans.

But it should be offensive to people of all nationalities because it somehow combines a children's cartoon about a fry cook in the Krusty Krab restaurant with a hip hop song about knock-kneeded bimbos walkin' like hoes into a commercial for burgers that are real thick and juicy.

At this rate, Burger King is going to hire Elmo to start spitting about how he "once got busy in a Burger King bathroom" and the Mexican ambassador will attempt to overthrow the king.

--Junichi