Burger Politics
I really dislike the new online ads for the upcoming film version of Fast Food Nation. Actually, I have always disliked the whole FFN phenom--sensationalism at its worst. But the new ads take the cake. Here's a summary of the simple animation:
First it shows an image of a swarthy-looking latino man (hilarious Luis Guzmán, in fact) with a grim look on his face. The caption explaining that 25% of all workers in the meatpacking industry are undocumented. Then it cuts to text that reads "You may not like it, but you still eat it." Finally, a hamburger flops down and the title of the film is displayed.
The first frame of the animation made me think that it was some progressive group raising awareness about the plight of undocumented workers in meatpacking plants. But the second part, about how us conusmers may not like it, seemed to be a shameless play on xenophobia and latino stereotypes: We may not like the fact that dirty illegals have their hands on our meat, but we eat it anyway.
I suppose we could give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that we may not like undocumented workers packing our meat because it's a hard-knock life for them. Maybe if we stopped eating at Jack in the Box, these workers would get green cards and computer programming jobs instead. But I think Fox Searchlight knows that the American everyman will experience a gut reaction more approximate to xenophobia than compassion when he imagines swarthy hands all over his burger.
To add insult to injury, the burger that falls into the ad looks really quite delicious. Why should I be upset that a meatpacker from below the Rio Grande handled my meat when it looks and tastes so good?
First it shows an image of a swarthy-looking latino man (hilarious Luis Guzmán, in fact) with a grim look on his face. The caption explaining that 25% of all workers in the meatpacking industry are undocumented. Then it cuts to text that reads "You may not like it, but you still eat it." Finally, a hamburger flops down and the title of the film is displayed.
The first frame of the animation made me think that it was some progressive group raising awareness about the plight of undocumented workers in meatpacking plants. But the second part, about how us conusmers may not like it, seemed to be a shameless play on xenophobia and latino stereotypes: We may not like the fact that dirty illegals have their hands on our meat, but we eat it anyway.
I suppose we could give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that we may not like undocumented workers packing our meat because it's a hard-knock life for them. Maybe if we stopped eating at Jack in the Box, these workers would get green cards and computer programming jobs instead. But I think Fox Searchlight knows that the American everyman will experience a gut reaction more approximate to xenophobia than compassion when he imagines swarthy hands all over his burger.
To add insult to injury, the burger that falls into the ad looks really quite delicious. Why should I be upset that a meatpacker from below the Rio Grande handled my meat when it looks and tastes so good?
posted by Boomtime at 1:06 PM
2 Comments:
You think the burger in the ad looks tasty? Eww. It's about as appetizing as those Carl's Jr. ads when the burger gets dumped into the frame. And don't you tell me you like those, too.
- Roman
HAHAHA -- dude, those Carl Jr. ads where their big greasy pastrami burger heart attack comes flying down screen are hilarious.
I even slow-mo those in Tivo because it's even better -- the rebound off the table is gr8 if u can slow mo.
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