MIAMI -- Burger King pulled a prime time television advertising spot parodying Mister Rogers off the air after the popular children's television host complained the ads were confusing young children.
The ad showed a soft-spoken man wearing a cardigan sweater and sneakers teaching children that No. 1 hamburger giant McDonald's 'Mcfries' its hamburgers.
'I have never made a commercial,' Fred Rogers, the host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, said Tuesday.
'My face has been on the air for about 30 years and I have never even appeared in a (television) auction because I feel strongly that young children need to be protected against those whom they trust not telling them things.'
The 56-year-old TV host, reached at his Family Communications Inc. studio in Pittsburgh where his Public Broadcasting System show is staged, said he received dozens of calls from parents complaining their young children were confused when the ads began airing last week.
'Many of them thought I was somehow involved in that commercial,' he said. 'I have had a lot of requests through the years to appear in television commericals but I have always said no because I really believe that a host of a television series should not use the trust which young people have in them by selling products to them on the air.'
The canceled commercial shows a gentle man named 'Mr. Rodney' holding up a flash card. He asks the audience for a word to describe 'something McDonalds does to every burger.'
He unfolds the flash card with the word 'McFrying.'
The ads, which are part of a $40 million ad campaign launched last week and proudly announced in Miami with a press release, are the latest volley in the battle of the burgers advertising war in which Miami-based Burger King compares its 'flame broiled' burgers to McDonald's hamburgers.
For more than a year, No. 2 Burger King has been criticizing McDonalds for 'frying' its hamburgers, although McDonald's describes its method of cooking burgers as 'grilled.'
McDonald's even sued Burger King in 1982 over a round of ads that said people prefered Whoppers to Big Macs.
Burger King said it will replace the spot with one showing a group of cavemen gathered around a camp fire cooking hamburgers.
Rogers said called Burger King Thursday and asked Don Dempsey, senior vice president of marketing, to take the ad off the air as soon as possible.
Dempsey agreed and the ad was pulled off the air within 72 hours.
'You know fine things can happen when people of good will get together. Don Dempsey and I had a very fine conversation,' Rogers said. 'He said I really had taught him something ... that children might be deceived by such a thing. It was for those reasons that he said his people would pull it.'
'Mr. Dempsey said his company would never want to offend Mr. Rogers,' Rogers said
Dempsey told Rogers he had a 2 month-old daughter who would be watching Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood some day.
The mission of Mr. Rogers popular televison show is 'helping children of families grow in healthy ways,' said a spokesman for the show, which has been on the air for 20 years. 'Mr. Rogers really feels strongly about it,' said the spokesman.
A Burger King spokesman said the $150,000 spot, created by the J. Walter Thompson ad agency, was seen about two dozen times on the networks and between 30 and 40 times in the average major market. The ads were supposed to run through early summer, but ran only seven days.
The spokesman said Burger King received several calls from customers who said their children wondered whether Mr. Rogers was now speaking for Burger King.
'Mr. Rogers is one guy you don't want to mess with, as beloved as he is,' said spokesman John Weir. 'So that particular commercial goes on the shelf. Hopefully we now have peace in the neighborhood.'
