ABSTRACT
“Sizzler is the choice of America!” So declares the smooth-harmonied chorus in a 1991 promotional video for the casual dining chain Sizzler. A copy of the video has recently gone viral, entertaining YouTube viewers with its mishmash of absurdly patriotic imagery, cheesy music, and unfortunate early 1990s clothing styles. Yet as laughable as the video may seem today, its central message about the relationship between consumers and corporations no doubt resonated with its target audience in 1991. “Sizzler brings the choices that you’ve been looking for,” viewers are informed. Multiple self-serve buffets under one roof in “a restaurant within a restaurant” give patrons “the right to choose,” equating a self-serve buffet with political democracy. “Add a little freedom in your life!” exhort the singers, and do it affordably, because Sizzler’s multiple buffets offer a wide variety of food “at a reasonable price.” Consumers in late twentieth-century America, the video suggests, were free to choose – and they had chosen affordable, abundant, mass-produced food of questionable healthfulness. 1
