{"id":20598,"date":"2015-11-18T08:28:38","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T12:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=20598"},"modified":"2015-11-18T08:57:51","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T12:57:51","slug":"taco-bell-thinks-youre-swell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2015\/11\/18\/taco-bell-thinks-youre-swell\/","title":{"rendered":"Taco Bell Thinks You’re Swell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_1107<\/a><\/p>\n

The other day I went to Taco Bell for the first time in a long time. As we pulled away from the drive thru window I noticed that something was off, but I couldn\u2019t put my finger on it. Then I looked down at my lap. The bag. This was not a Taco Bell bag, this was more like a fancy Bloomingdale\u2019s bag; it was a thick, heavy brown paper that was dramatically different from\u00a0the thin, flimsy plastic that Taco Bell has used for as long as I can remember. My first thought was \u201cmy cats are gonna love this.\u201d My second was \u201cwhy does this bag say Live the VIP life?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1113\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Emma living the VIP life.<\/em><\/p>\n

Intrigued, I did what the bag told me to do. I downloaded the app. The bag promised me that the app would give me access to many features wonderful to behold. So, I did what so many of us do all the time; I traded my personal information for the promise of free stuff and customer perks, though I did so as a curious media studies researcher more so than a frequent Taco Bell consumer. I am particularly interested in class analysis and this bag\/app combo had it all: promises of exclusivity, VIP status, and of course, \u201cLiving M\u00e1s.\u201d Who doesn\u2019t want to live m\u00e1s?<\/p>\n

What greeted me in the app was more than I could have hoped. The app is a combination of colloquial, friendly greeting and \u201clifestyle\u201d imagery. Hip young white people enjoying their life and hanging out with their friends while not-so-subtly consuming Taco Bell products. They are sitting under palm trees, wearing shabby chic jeans, holding iPhones, and eating Dorito tacos while hanging from some sort of bungee cord\/harness thing.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1111<\/a><\/p>\n

In case you thought I was joking.<\/em><\/p>\n

There is also a game that you can play. It’s called #playyourlife. It \u201crewards you when you Live M\u00e1s.\u201d You can (obviously) connect the app with your social media networks and \u201clive your life and post about it\u201d with the hashtag. Taco Bell will reward you with puzzle pieces that can earn you \u201cfree food, swag or cool experiences.\u201d The FAQ asks and answers the question \u201cWhy did you create this crazy new game?\u201d by saying \u201c\u2026 we think you\u2019re pretty rad and we want to reward our fans who inspire us everyday.\u201d No mention of the free advertising and user data Taco Bell receives from social media posts, but seeing as we\u2019re all friends here I\u2019m sure that\u2019s just a fortunate perk and secondary to the totally awesome fun you and Taco Bell will have sharing experiences and sweet, sweet swag.<\/p>\n

They also have a tricky way of getting around the question of tracking you by saying \u201cwe have a Live M\u00e1s algorithm, and you never know what you might do to trigger it. We would tell you the super secret formula, but then this wouldn\u2019t be a game.\u201d To the question \u201cHow can I earn puzzle pieces by connecting my social networks?\u201d T-Bell says (this is worth quoting in full):<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, connect with us so we can recognize you for being awesome. Then do what you\u2019re already doing. Live your life and share it. You probably already post about your adventures in everyday life, right? Then you\u2019re already halfway there. Update that status, like a few pages and don\u2019t forget your check-ins. Oh yeah, Instagram posts, tweets, and retweets can all earn you pieces too. You\u2019ll never know exactly what actions you take on your social networks might trigger a piece, but that\u2019s part of the fun!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This not only has the advantage of concealing what T-Bell does with your information but also encourages you to post as often as humanly possible to increase your odds of being picked up by the algorithm and getting puzzle pieces that will eventually get you rewards.<\/p>\n

I could go on all day, but lets get to some analysis. In short, if you want to be a VIP you should download the Taco Bell app. Doing so means you have great taste, and you\u2019re a savvy consumer who knows a good deal when you see one. All you have to do to \u201cearn\u201d the rewards that you \u201cdeserve\u201d is what you\u2019re already doing: being your rad, adventurous self while sharing your exciting experiences on your social media platforms. You just have to add an extra hashtag and Taco Bell will track you down and bestow upon you the rewards of living m\u00e1s. Also, Taco Bell does all of this because they love you (to an extent that borders on creepy) and just wants to give you free stuff for being so cool.<\/p>\n

Taco Bell is tapping in to a zeitgeist that is popular for corporate entities looking to appeal to a young, hip customer base. The \u201clifestyle\u201d aesthetic of neoliberal late capitalism commodifies individualism, and identity maintenance through products and social media presence is a valuable tool for commercial entities. Taco Bell is more than willing to trade a few burritos for something that is difficult to buy\u2014a seemingly authentic integration into the everyday lives of their consumer base. And that\u2019s the key; social media interaction is embedded in everyday life for the consumers Taco Bell is targeting here. If they can get you to think about and share Taco Bell in your everyday life, then hopefully Taco Bell 1) becomes a part of your everyday life as well and 2) becomes a part of everyday life for your social media network. The images of young white people holding tacos and having adventures capitalizes on an aesthetic that is central to both advertising and identity maintenance\u2014the (sub)urban lifestyle of taste-makers with disposable income.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

Probably not the sort of authenticity TB was hoping for. Used with permission from Tweeter.<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more interesting is Taco Bell\u2019s reputation for cheap, edible food that is best consumed when you are stoned out of your mind or have been drinking all night. It is also accused of having deleterious effects on the digestive system. It is both beloved and feared for whatever it is that they do to their ground beef. But never, in my experience, has it been characterized as the fast food of adventurous VIPs. More typically it is the go-to late night snack for intoxicated college kids on a budget.<\/p>\n

Taco Bell didn\u2019t choose this reputation as an advertising strategy, for reasons that don\u2019t need to be explained here. But whether or not it\u2019s been successful is a question to ponder. I checked Twitter and Instagram for #playyourlife. It isn\u2019t exactly a flourishing tag. And the few posts that I did see usually had nothing to do with Taco Bell, though whether the users were connected to the app is impossible tell without further ethnographic analysis and interviews. It\u2019s interesting that the #playyourlife\u00a0hashtag doesn\u2019t explicitly have anything to do with the brand. There are two possible explanations for this: it\u2019s a marketing oversight that isn\u2019t having the desired effect, or it was deliberately vague to encourage greater use among customers who don\u2019t want to turn their social media accounts into billboards. I suspect the latter is true, in which case Taco Bell isn\u2019t necessarily interested in free advertising as I suggested earlier. Rather, they may just be interested in keeping track of the customers willing to trade a peek into their digital selves for free stuff. For some, it’s a small price to pay for living m\u00e1s.<\/p>\n

Britney is on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I went to Taco Bell for the first time in a long time. As we pulled away from the drive thru window I noticed that something was off, but I couldn\u2019t put my finger on it. Then I looked down at my lap. The bag. This was not a Taco Bell bag, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1931,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9967],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1931"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20598"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20611,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20598\/revisions\/20611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}