Taco Bell Expects Screenwriters To Work For Free Food

Sheila — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:43:10 EST

I've been on many a picket line, and what tends to happen is the whole community comes out in support of a strike: local bakeries offer free coffee and donuts, and area restaurants often stop by in the afternoon with foodstuffs. It's just the right thing to do. Taco Bell, that purveyor of food for harried workingmen everywhere, will do no such thing, according to Trading Markets. Instead, they are offering striking screenwriters the "chance to win free Taco Bell food by injecting fun and fresh bits of wisdom into the restaurant chain's iconic Border Sauce packets." They want them to work for free, basically, for the chance to win about $260 worth of food.

"Up to 10 wisdoms will be selected and hundreds of millions will be printed and appear in Taco Bell restaurants this Fall." How about a paycheck, you sleazy PR-addicted hacks? We'll see you in hell. Examples of previous proverbs:

The road to mediocrity is littered with empty ketchup packets.
Nice palm. I read a great deal of pleasure in your future.

Use your stomach, nacho mind.

If you throw this, would it be a flying saucer?

When I grow up, I want to be a waterbed.

Hungry Screenwriters Strike Out On Their Own

Sheila — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:15:10 EST

Now that they're on strike, it seems like screenwriters are busier and more productive than ever. But left to their own devices, it turns out that they are a distinctly unfunny bunch. Put a bunch of 'em in a room and eventually they'll write Six Feet Under, but in the end they're just monkeys—monkeys writing for the LA Times and New York mag and making their own blogs and getting all up on the HuffPo. Here's our Striking Screenwriter Roundup—clearly the work of simians. All they can think about is food!

Late Show With David Letterman writers strike blog: "...I have to say, it was arguably the finest sandwich I've ever enjoyed as a participant in a temporary work stoppage."

Writers Strike Guide: "What do we want?/More Twizzlers!/When do we want them?/Now!"

WGA member Neal Pollack speaks truth to power in Slate: "People kept bringing us boxes of doughnuts. A husband-and-wife team went on a Subway run. A car full of UTA assistants came by to offer us cookies." God, did you know that Alternadad got optioned? Well, it did!

"'And, if you look to your left, you'll see the TV writers' strike,' the [tour bus] guide said in the same adorable tone one would use to point out a petting zoo. People leaned over to take pictures. I thought they might start throwing feed pellets." [New York Post]

"Today, another little girl and her mom brought us these awesome cupcakes." [NY Mag]

In the words of a Daily Show writer: "Lacking any other site to express myself (for money), I am forced to record my thoughts in my diary: the 'New York Times' Sunday Styles section."

Honey, don't worry, that's pretty much what it is for the rest of the world too.

Gawker: screenwriters

Taco Bell Expects Screenwriters To Work For Free Food

Hungry Screenwriters Strike Out On Their Own