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Diversion of the Day, 12/30
When your taco shop gets robbed, you could just sob into your corn tortillas. But Las Vegas restaurant Frijoles and Frescas Grilled Tacos had a much better idea: Turn the surveillance video into an ad!
Well played, Mr. Restaurateur. Not only do I want to visit retribution upon these barely competent thieves, I now want to visit Frijoles and Frescas for some of their delicious tacos. Since the local paper rated them the best in Sin City, maybe the robbers have better taste than most criminals.
Published in General
Black guys try to steal from a Mexican restaurant? How microagressive of you. I need to faint.
I want to meet the guy who came up with this ad. I’ll bet he’s one fun guy to talk with.
Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant!
Very clever. My wife and I moved to Vegas a few months ago. Will have to remember to try this place out sometime…during business hours, of course.
I saw this video elsewhere on the web today, and I had to ask myself what the robbers went into the store to get. Registers were the first things to hand upon entering, and yet the robbers prowled the entire store twice before ripping out the cash drawer of one terminal before leaving.
It is actually possible that they *were* looking for tacos….
Bet it’s someone who works or has worked for Chiat Day?!
I am positively slack-jawed by this attempt to take back the night.
:)
Best. Commercial. Ever.
Whoever thought to do that has the soul of a giant.
Who said revenge is a dish best served cold? Revenge is best served with a side of refried beans and Mexican rice.
To quote President Bartlet from The West Wing: “Some of the dumbest criminals in the world work right here in America; I’ve always been very proud of that.”
Have these clowns never heard of a neat little piece of technology called “video cameras”? Or maybe, masks?
Now I have to fly to Vegas to get some of those tacos (of course, I watched that right before dinner).
And well marinated chicken and carne asada.
I suspect there were no bills in those cash drawers. Don’t most stores empty out their cash drawers/registers at closing time?
Whatever Frijoles lost in insurance deductibles and increased premiums will be more than made up by new traffic. This was masterful.
This Alamo Drafthouse commercial is my favorite.
Who are the real victims here?
The corporate restaurant chain with pockets deep enough to make a commercial besmirching the reputations of young men who have not been charged with any crime?
Or the young men who are trying to better themselves and who, along with their ancestors, have battled against centuries of slavery, Jim Crow, and institutional racism – only to be labeled “homeboys” – a vicious racial epithet – on a television ad seen by hundreds of thousands people?
My heart bleeds for them. It bleeds red spicy salsa. Just needs some chips for dipping.
You guys are so gullible. All signs point to a false flag operation. How else would they have known to look in the storeroom twice?
Love it when Ricochetti comedically write MSNBCs heartfelt talking points. Bravo Johnny, bravo.
Those gotta be some good tacos…
“Yer Honor, Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury… clearly the sign is misleading. It states emphatically,’FRIJOLES & FRESCAS.’ FREEjoles and frescas. My clients searched the storeroom for the free frescas, in which there weren’t any and I believe They are due. So, They took the free joles… which is… um… Sinhalese for… say… cash registers.”
I agree with the general thrust of your comment. I would add that it was a microaggression to cast black men in the roles of white thugs. I know that it is more common for the reverse to be what is complained of (white actors cast as colored persons), but this is just as bad.
I am not upset by the use of the term “homeboy.” A derivation of “homeboy” is a term used by a fellow in the big city (e.g., Chicago) running into someone who comes originally from the same small town (e.g., Waycross, Georgia). “Hey, it’s my homeboy,” he would explain as he introduced his new acquaintance to all his hoodlum friends. Then he would proceed to try to con him out of all his money.
Is nobody concerned and outraged that the gringo proprietors of Frijoles and Frescas have inappropriate appropriated and are exploiting a culturally significant (and delicious) foodway?
Worse yet, they even put lettuce on it!!! Que vergüenza!
So hilarious. And the background music haha! Oh, and thank you, Jon, for not writing “restauranteur.”
It will be interesting to see what happens when these individuals sue the company because it did not get their permission to use their likeness in a commercial. I can easily see a court awarding significant amounts of money for that.
Not sure why the taco place is after the criminals. Their video states that “We take full responsibility for what our tacos cause people to do”. Does this not release the criminals from any culpability since Frijoles is now saying that Frijoles tacos made them do it and that Frijoles claims full written public responsibility for that fact.
It was funny but . . . now I want a taco.
I always want a taco. Though not as much as those homeboys.
Bastiat is peeved; Keynes is gratified. This could be an exception to the Broken Windows Fallacy made possible by social media. We live in amazing times.
David Sussman: “Love it when Ricochetti comedically write MSNBCs heartfelt talking points. Bravo Johnny, bravo.”
Thanks, David. My aim was in fact to write something that could plausibly have been said by the MSNBC crowd.
I’ve never understood the excusing of criminality because: racism. Ever since I was a child I have heard those arguments. The racism = poverty = criminality formulation breaks down when you consider that immigrants of different races are able to come here and achieve economic success, and that much African-American criminality actually has little to do with poverty. What, for example, is to be gained economically from rape?
Or from wilding, or from the knockout game, or from vandalism? Just the fun of being bad.
Doesn’t anyone know, what happens in ‘Vegas, stays in ‘Vegas?