What The Hail?
While watching The Superbowl last year, there was an advertisement that came on the television for Taco Bell. The ad began with a group of old people sneaking out of a nursing home at night, and shows some of the activities they do. Over the course of the night they go to a nightclub, while there they make out in the corners, dance, party, and hook up in the bathrooms. They also break into a pool, set off firecrackers, do doughnuts in a street with their car. They flash people in a restaurant and one of them even gets a tattoo. The night is finished after they go to taco bell and eat it on the hood of their car while a policeman gives them a dirty look (as if he knows they are up to no good). After all of which they go back to the nursing home as the sun comes up. It isn’t until the end of the ad that we learn that it is a commercial for taco bell.
It is clear right away that the ad is targeting teenagers and young adults. Teenagers are frequently hailed as ‘partyers’ and ‘rebels’ for sneaking out, and doing things such as going into nightclubs, and doing doughnuts in their cars (as seen in the commercial). This ad sees that teenagers and young adults are hailed this way, and they change the modes of address to suit this. Obviously elderly citizens are hailed differently- living in retirement homes they knit, and watch television… they don’t party! It is part of the identity of young adults and teenagers to rebel, but as quoted from Media and Society Michael O’Shaughnessy and Jane Stadler observed, “the possibility of playing with identity is seen as one of the most exciting aspects of the new technologies.” (184). This ad was interpreted as comedic because of the mode of address; it manipulated the identity that young adults were hailed as having, and manipulated it.
It is no secret that after a busy night out with friends, Taco Bell is the perfect greasy hunger quencher. One mode of address which advertisements use towards the young adult population is to recognize our lifestyle, and try to relate to us through it. When ads reflect to us this way “[…] give us our identities and subjectivities.” (Media and Society 186) This commercial reminds us who we are, and relates to us through reflecting our lifestyle, and then parodies us. This ad was extremely effective because it was a comedy, which is something we enjoy seeing in commercials. It also reflected our hailed lifestyle, which gives us identity. Then it plays with our sense of identity by making the commercial about the elderly, it is in this part that we find the humor.
allisonsparham 