Capitalism Goes Ultra Cringe With Just Eat’s Menulog Commercial Starring Christina Aguilera and Latto

For a moment there, it seemed as though everyone was quite quick to bill Christina Aguilera as the “classier” of the two 00s icons of pop stardom, with Britney Spears long ago billed as an “inbred swamp thing” (namely, in a 2007 Rolling Stone cover story). But now, all that “good faith” has officially gone to pot. An appropriate food-related idiom in this case as Aguilera has taken to shilling for Just Eat’s recently-acquired Australian outfit, Menulog. And, although she’s not alone in the endeavor (joined by Latto on rap vocals), something about her stooping to this level is more unexpected than it is from Latto. Some will probably read that as having racist undertones, but no, it’s more about the fact that rapping women of Latto’s generation, including Cardi B (who has plugged everything from Pepsi to Balenciaga) and Ice Spice (currently shaking her ass for Dunkin’ Donuts), have never known an existence in which debasing oneself for money via over-the-top advertising endorsements wasn’t the norm. 

To be sure, this has been happening since brands and celebrities long ago unearthed the financial possibilities of their collaborative partnerships but it seemed that, once upon a time, there was a touch more tact to these “synergies.” Even in Aguilera’s “heyday,” circa 1999 to 2006, there was a less schlock-y feel than what she’s just put out into the world with Latto. This could, in part, have to do with print ads being more viable back then, allowing celebrities to say more by saying nothing at all. Just sporting the wares. Of course, in Menulog’s instance, food can’t exactly be sported (unless we’re talking that quintessential scene from Varsity Blues). And so, instead, Aguilera and Latto opt to sing passionately about the many possibilities of the app when it comes to ordering food. 

Not least of which includes, per Latto’s rap, “Oh you thought it was just burgers and fries?/They got more flavors than you tasted or you heard in your life.” Already, with the implication that flavors can be “heard,” it’s clear that “sensicality” isn’t exactly what matters. Not in this commercial, and certainly not in life. After all, if life made sense, those with greater privilege wouldn’t abuse those given little other choice but to do a job so abusive and low-paying (especially considering said abuse) as delivering slop for Menulog. 

Aguilera is no stranger to the advertising game, of course. In 2003, she followed in Spears’ footsteps by promoting Skechers in a series of print ads (this after Spears had parted ways with Skechers, effectively making Christina Aguilera “sloppy seconds”). Then there have been her more recent ventures, including becoming a spokesperson for Playground (a sexual wellness brand) and Merz Aesthetics. The latter company had Aguilera focusing on the promotion of Xeomin, an injectable intended to reduce between-the-eyebrow-centered frown lines. Ironically, the campaign was called “Beauty On Your Terms.” Of course, if beauty were on anyone’s terms except the patriarchy’s, women wouldn’t be worrying so goddamn much about frown lines, and, in effect, might actually not have as many to try to hide.

At present, Aguilera appears to want to assure that people can “just eat” on their own terms as well. Even if Latto is doing most of the heavy lifting on the lyrical delivery, further assuring viewers, “Ooh, this is what the app do/It ain’t only fast food/Switchin’ styles like opera to rap tunes.” As for that mention of “opera,” this is where both Aguilera and the setting of the commercial itself come in. Presenting a world of “opulence” as both Latto and Aguilera appear in a Versailles-type palace wearing Marie Antoinette-inspired gowns. Because, evidently, when you order from Menulog, it makes you feel like a queen. Or such is the intended seduction of this capitalistic endeavor. One in which even food has to be weaponized as a “status symbol.” 

That said, in every scenario where status is involved, someone has to play the part of “lowly servant” in order to make the bourgeoisie feel like they’re in their “higher echelon.” So it is that, whether realizing it or not, the creative team behind the commercial, directed by Dave Meyers, has effectively pitted the haves and have-nots against each other by featuring orange uniform-wearing (perhaps an unwitting nod to how work feels like a prison) delivery folk dancing around Latto and Aguilera, ultimately in a servile position (which includes pushing Latto in a cart). The previous celebrity commercials for Just Eat’s “Did Somebody Say” (featuring Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry, respectively), predicated on the same concept, didn’t parade servility quite so overtly, but when a baroque premise is involved, perhaps it’s more difficult to mask the fact that some people are eating and some people are just hustling to get this bread.   

Especially now that delivery has expanded into the grocery store market, which Latto is sure to call out in the lyrics, “And it ain’t only restaurants anymore/We can go bananas at the grocery store.” Even Australian grocery stores, as Menulog is the Just Eat-owned brand being pushed here. And maybe some part of Aguilera agreed to sign on in the hope that the U.S. wouldn’t bother with watching the widely-available ad (such is the curse of the internet rendering all content as viewable to anyone, no matter what country an ad is really being catered to). Latto doesn’t appear to have any sense of shame about doing what needs to be done to collect her paycheck as she continues to do most of the work while Aguilera “ehs” and “ahs” bombastically in the background. However, for most of the “song,” it feels like a solo effort, with Latto also adding, “I’m a bad girl, but my takeout badder/What you need dude? I could cop a taco platter/Thai rice, sticky-icky/Gyoza on the side, fried right ‘cause we kind picky.” As the scene then cuts to the Marie Antoinette-attired duo riding in a gondola through a stream bedecked on either side with fountains, Latto continues, “Breakfast or lunch, hon/Dinner or brunch/Wanna find the finest dining?/I got a hunch.” 

We’re then taken back to the interior just after Aguilera softly sings, “And some hot tall dude’s bringing buns to the ballroom.” Heavy-handed sexual innuendo aside, this line also verbally calls out the visuals of servility we’ve seen already. Making it worse still as the rich fetishize the working class as something to be ogled while they work. Ergo, Latto building on that lyric right after by saying, “Got me a strong coffee/Let’s get it on, papi.” Unfortunately, for as harmlessly cracked-out as they thought the lyrics might be (including, “Ice cream with my magazine, who can stop me?”), it only ends up highlighting the chasm between those who work for Just Eat/Menulog and those who order from it. Never mind the fact that those who order from the app are laboring under the false illusion of “luxury” anyway, what with a large portion of restaurants that Just Eat peddles on their website not exactly being fully up to the most hygienic of standards. So there’s that for sticking it to the bourgeoisie, essentially paying to having it “stuck” to them. 

As for the seeming “randomness” of tapping Aguilera and Latto for this ad, the entire concept of wielding celebrities to promote Just Eat also speaks to the blueprint of what Bonnie Fuller (the former editor-in-chief of Us Weekly) came up with via the magazine segment known as “Stars: They’re Just Like Us.” In the end, the hoi polloi wants to be reassured, despite all evidence to the contrary, that they’re not the only ones “relegated” to using something as middle-class as Just Eat. And the trick seems to have worked, with positive feedback in the comments section touting, “We want an extended single version of this! Christina sounds incredible and Latto is fire” and “This NEEDS to be a single!!!!”

Does it though? Because it’s rather superfluous to try to pass off the ad as anything other than another cringeworthy hooray for capitalism! (and its place within the celebrity-industrial complex). Aguilera didn’t get that message at all. For, soon after the commercial aired, she took to her Instagram to post a behind-the-scenes video of her and Latto on set, choosing “Can’t Hold Us Down” featuring Lil’ Kim to soundtrack it. Apart from the slightly racist implications of selecting one of her only songs featuring a Black woman to play up working with another female rapper in the present, Aguilera further insulted people’s intelligence by captioning it, “This is for the girls” (a nod to the chorus of “Can’t Hold Us Down”). Like, really, Xtina? Is a commercial about food delivery “for the girls”? Is this the best the feminist movement can do? Level the playing field for women to be as obsessed with “filling their bag” as men? If that’s the case, might as well get back in the kitchen. No need for ordering delivery then.