What do cheap tacos, American football, Courtney Love and contemporary pop music’s enfant terrible Doja Cat have in common? They all combine, to curious effect, in the new Taco Bell ad.
The ad, which will get its TV premiere during this weekend’s NFL Super Bowl, stars Doja Cat as a student in clown college. The ad’s title is “The Grande Escape,” which refers to Doja Cat’s rascally departure from clown school along with a few accomplices.
The group shed their clown attire as they drive the streets in a clown mobile, while Doja Cat’s version of Hole’s ‘Celebrity Skin’ blares through the speakers. The ad ends with a close-up of Taco Bell’s Fire sauce, which is the implied trigger for Doja’s spontaneous escape. The sauce packet features the company’s slogan, “Live más,” which translates to “live more.”
It’s hardly an act of rebellion. Taco Bell is a trashy fast food restaurant and the Super Bowl broadcast epitomises the intersection between sports, popular culture, and hyper consumerism. But we can assume everyone got paid a pretty penny – Courtney Love and her ‘Celebrity Skin’ co-writers Eric Erlandson and Billy Corgan included – for the ad’s creation.
The original song appeared as the opening track and lead single from the album of the same name, which came out in 1998. It topped the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and remains Hole’s most commercially successful single.
