Spongebob Squarepants Wanted Poster Accuses Nickelodeon Of Marketing Obesity To Children

A Spongebob Squarepants “wanted” poster is accusing Nickelodeon of purposefully marketing junk food and obesity to children.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, a Spongebob Squarepants Russian drill song became viral recently, giving the cartoon theme song a scary and intimidating twist that ends with an evil, maniacal laugh. A Spongebob Squarepants app was being evil for a completely different reason, this time invading the privacy of children. Spongebob Squarepants even got flack from the DJs who say that Kill Paris’s SXSW set was messed up by a giant yellow blowup that ended up crowd surfing.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) purchased a full-page ad that displays a unshaven and disheveled version of the popular cartoon character Spongebob Squarepants in mug shot poses. The ad claims that Spongebob Squarepants should be “approached with caution: he may be armed with nutritionally dangerous foods.”

CSPI nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan says that Nickelodeon has purposefully used its advertising might to put on display unhealthy products such as Cocoa Puffs, Air Heads candies, Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurants, and Fruit Roll-Ups. Kids under the age of 12 are regularly tempted by an average of 13 food ads per day.

The CSPI calls upon Nickelodeon to change its unhealthy ways, saying, “Nickelodeon prides itself on responsible programming for children, but what about its advertising? Nickelodeon is lagging behind companies like Disney when it comes to supporting parents and protecting kids from junk-food marketing.”

The reason that the CSPI praises Disney is because the company updated its policy to no longer accept ads for the unhealthiest foods on its children’s television, radio, and Websites. Instead, Disney characters are limited to advertising healthy choices, like Goofy representing a snack pack that includes cherry tomatoes, carrots, celery sticks, and dip.

What do you think about the Spongebob Squarepants wanted poster?