SilverWook said:

What was George thinking when he approved it? That it's battery operated to make the tongue rotate only makes it worse. ;)

The TFA merchandise we've seen seems tasteful so far.

Jar Jar seems to have been the incarnation of GL's pent-up contempt for his audience. When all the justifiably negative reactions to the character - which he must have realized were inevitable - came flooding back to him, I think he doubled down on his gambit, and though he gave in to the public's demands on the one hand by cutting back on Jar Jar's screen time, he nevertheless gives him a crucial role in AotC, and even has him break the fourth wall and smirk to the audience at one point, as if to give the audience the finger on behalf of his creator.

So I can't help but imagine that Lucas okayed the otherwise ludicrous "tongue lollipop" concept shortly after Rob Coleman timidly expressed his concerns about the character. The forthcoming storm of fan outrage thus forecast in his employee's tentatively expressed trepidations, George probably went back to his office, rifled through the sheaves of lisencee proposals, found the one for the lollipop, and smiled grimly to himself, saying: "So they won't like Jar Jar, huh? We'll see about that, Coleman. By this time next year, I'll have the sons of bitches tongue kissing Jar Jar!"