Every year, there's usually one or two commercials I go bananas over. I watch them over and over — for FUN.
Taco Bell's new ad, "Routine Republic" by Deutsch makes me get SOOOOO NERDY. You guys, I have a CRUSH on this ad. Taco Bell is so clever at sizing up its competition, you can't help but love them for it. This time it's very Hunger Games/1984.
The ad opens in a dreary looking apartment with a shoddy TV playing eery McDonald's propaganda.
"It's another PERFECT morning in the Routine Republic.
Where happiness is eating the SAME breakfast."
As the story continues to unfold and lifeless-looking people line up for cold, colorless burgers, you get the feeling that no one in this sad little world is actually happy, like the ad claims.
Older viewers will associate the general storyline with George Orwell's totalitarian 1984 world and the famous Apple commercial that followed. Younger viewers who love The Hunger Games series will immediately pick up on similar themes and artistic cues. And will love Taco Bell for it. Way to recycle an old-as-time theme and refresh it in a relevant way with current pop culture, Deutsch. Brilliantly done.
They were dead-on with everything. The setting, costuming, talent-picking etc., including the power of music and language. A perfectly pleasant, robotic voiceover shares her repetitive propaganda over sickeningly cheery patriotic band music. Until finally the characters break free and the ever-catchy "Hey Ho Let's Go" tag by the Ramones kicks in. It totally changes the mood. It's awesome. And you can't get either one out of your head.
Oh, and will you all laugh out loud with me as the two main characters jump into the McDonald's Play Land ball pit before they escape the land of Same-Same-Same With A Smile? Their attention to McDonald's detail makes me want to stand up and cheer. The nod to clowns. The Play Land slide. The tinkering with an old Happy Meal toy. Little pot shots like these are glorious.
Poking fun at McDonald's isn't a first for Taco Bell. I loved their first set of breakfast ads that outted all of the Ronald McDonalds in the land for preferring Taco Bell breakfast. Because they had such a major contender to compete with, they knew they had to do it big. But this new campaign takes the cake.
This commercial is SO good, I kind of feel bad for McDonald's. They've seen better days and then Taco Bell takes a giant chalupa on them. Again.