"badvertising"
what do we get from taking the piss out of advertising, and what of ethics in advertising?
over the past few days i’ve watched the Doja Cat/Taco Bell partnership unfold- i saw the Doja Cat ads first (the pre-amble to the ad, then the actual ad, which, well, are both technically ads- i missed the Live where she apparently previewed the jingle); then i saw #marketingtwitter’s polarized response to it.
before we get into what i call “badvertising,” it’s important to note its place in the general new wave of “meta-marketing.” (i also think it’s important to say that i don’t give a fuck about the difference between “““advertising””” and “““marketing.””” i don’t! it’s all the same to me and to consumers.)
anyways- meta-marketing is more straightforwardly understood: it’s a self-referential, and typically self-deprecating, way of signaling to the audience that you are aware that they’re aware that you’re trying to sell them something. meta-marketing was born the way all “meta-” things are, as a way to differentiate in a crowded space to broker authenticity. for marketing that was especially aimed at younger audiences like Gen Z who are allergic to traditional marketing, yet still have an affinity for using brand alignment as a method of self-expression.
deadpool is the best-known version of this, but there are smaller branches of meta-marketing worth acknowledging, too: steak-umm’s unfiltered and successful take on social media, as a form of social media marketing; small business social managers posting TikToks asking the audience to “help blow this up because my boss told me to go viral,” when the video itself is typically just whatever’s trending at that moment, be it a Shrek AR filter or 7 seconds of looping sound and text.
this is where “badvertising” comes in. “badvertising” is a specific branch of “meta-marketing” that positions the ad’s creative as inherently bad, to comedic effect and to broker authenticity. it can’t knock the product itself as “bad”- in fact it only works for things that are already beloved- Taco Bell’s Mexican pizza is a beloved staple, and the Doja Cat ad is to announce its return after a year hiatus.
what’s appealing about “badvertising” is exactly that- it takes the piss, removing airs and presenting a customer with a more “genuine” offer. “this is the thing. like it or don’t.” what is problematic about it is that, well, that’s not exactly possible- in fact it’s arguably ethically worse than a more straightforward ad. meta-anything is still the thing it references itself to be; removing positivity or persuasion in the ad’s tone does not negate the fact that you still paid the person to say the thing or you’re still doing the thing you’re doing. you are still selling something, period.
for doja cat, there’s two things of note: one, she’s a celebrity (with an ongoing joke about “forgetting she’s a celebrity”), and celebrities are paid to present themselves as wholehearted, earnest endorsers or users of the product for you to believe it’s worth a buy; two, she’s a singer-songwriter, so the creative (a jingle) will be “good.” the very fact that the jingle is “bad” but got attention still makes it a “good” jingle regardless of its artistic prowess.
we don’t know if the whole thing was an arranged stunt, or if Doja Cat really, truly did just fly in the face of partnership norms and do her contractually obligated content in this fashion. it actually doesn’t matter all that much to consumers, other than in terms of credit/giving the Taco Bell marketing team their flowers.
but one thing i’m constantly often confronted in with my work as a social marketer is, does all this matter if the ad “works” for the people it’s intended?
critique is important to merit change and improvement, but advertising is, well, advertising.
maybe it’s like saying you want to “live ethically under capitalism”- it’s not possible despite even the purest intentions or efforts, because capitalism is inherently unethical. can you even advertise ethically these days, and are individual marketers- especially lower-pay-grade ones- responsible for considering doing so, or are we just one small cog in a system built long before us that we cannot change?
i perhaps naively think it’s possible to do so. if you want to be authentic, do authentic things. i love Abbott Elementary redirecting marketing funds to buy school supplies, for example. when i worked on Handmaid’s Tale, it was important to me that we actually donate to women’s charities or partner with relevant orgs, not just have an instagram that armed women with feminist memes or show clips to go viral. one of the longest debates in present-day climate is how brands engage marginalized communities; it took years to get us to a state of normalcy wherein brands know they need to do their little icon and banner changes for Pride Month, and now, we push to get them to do something to support the LGBTQ community- or better yet, we push back against them if the actual company policies or products weren’t built with that community in mind at all.
i tell Gen Z students this whenever i do guest lectures: your demands that brands be better actually works, and arms social marketers like me with data to prove how meeting consumer demands in any form can make a tangible business impact (read: make money), which is the only way that will get done. is that so bad?
again, this may make it all a big, untenable oxymoron. doing good things on behalf of a product or tv show is still a form of advertising. but it also provides a genuine aid or service. “badvertising,” perhaps, doesn’t, and maybe doesn’t need to. but it could.
(FWIW, i think the Doja Cat ad is smart. it clearly worked to inspire conversation, and the tiktok comments prove that it resonated with its target demo. additionally, the execution was appropriate- nowhere else can this type of content live than tiktok, and arguably no real mainstream celebrity is more authentic on the app than doja cat. i think the intro to the jingle deflated its potential as a viral sound- it only has 326 sound uses so far- but perhaps that wasn’t as important to them, or there’s further rollout to come for the jingle itself.)