There’s a Taco Bell commercial that I saw recently which I found interesting. You can get insight into ideology in a compact and quick way through commercials, that you can’t quite find any other way. This commercial is about how you can make your money go further at Taco Bell than at other food places, because you can get cheap food that’s pretty filling. They have lots of stuff that will fill you up, for $3 or less. The subtext here is that everyone is poor now, so they have to get as much bang for their fast food buck as possible.
But the twist is that this poorness is expressed in like a cool hip way. This commercial is like the perfection of neoliberal millenial hipster ideology, because it’s like, Taco Bell is the only place where you can make your money go far, and the actors in the commercial are these like dirt poor hipsters eating tacos, but they’re cool-looking. It wasn’t so long ago that they had the little dog saying “Yo Quiero Taco Bell.” There was nothing to it beyond, cute dog, saying he wants Taco Bell. And he said it in Spanish, that was like the one twist. But those were much simpler times. Now it’s like “hey Taco Bell knows you’re poor, but like it’s cool that you’re poor, right?”
I've been reading up a bit about Gramsci. Economic exploitation is not the only drive behind capitalism but also the ruling class’ ideas and values. So now the poor not only accept the crumbs that fall off the table but make it chic to do so. That way, you never challenge the dominant ideas of what is normal and legitimate. I'm all for cheaper food, but it can also be healthy and good. The fascinating part is how a society expresses its values through consent rather than force. And you know that famous book, Manufacturing Consent, by Chomsky.
It's a "trend" now to be poor and eat shit. Make poverty cool again!!!
“In fact, it’s landing really well right now. Cereal for dinner is something that is probably more on trend now, and we would expect [it] to continue as that consumer is under pressure.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/27/kelloggs-ceo-cereal-for-dinner