Taco Bell is standing up as a bright and shining saviour in this dark and hopeless world we are left with amidst the most costly strike Hollywood has ever faced. It would seem that the catchy phrases printed randomly on Taco Bell’s Battery Acid packets (also known as hot and mild taco sauce and ketchup) are in need of a fresh look and the mighty Bell has offered work to the cash strapped and hungry Writers Guild strikers.
Their hope is that these out of practice and starving writers will be well fed and of fresh mind when the anticpated end of the strike happens.
That’s why the marketing-savvy corporation has launched a contest, via its website, that offers striking WGA members a chance to win free food for a year (valued at $250) by “injecting fun and fresh bits of wisdom into the restaurant chain’s iconic Border Sauce packets.
I like how the article continues on to flatter our intelligence by claiming Taco Bell as “faux Mexican cuisine” but at the bottom of this is just one advertising outlet using this dire situation to their benefit.
Ad developers will fail at nothing to manipulate a situation – good or bad – to spin their own marketing ploy. It is shameless, but dare I say effective.
There may even be some WGA writers who are willing to step up to this contest, but I wonder: Does writing ad slogans violate their union rules for performing their job while under strike? Or does that just apply to writing movies?
