Dead Tree Media - Traditional Advertising Reviewed by an Internet Marketer » Taco Bell

Taco Bell/Aasif Mandvi Predict a Short Summer

Mike Stern — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:22:18 +0000

So far it’s been a lousy summer in Chicago. We essentially had no spring and so far June has been feast or famine; 90 degrees or 60 degress. Nothing in-between.

But even I remain hopeful that summer will last longer than one week which is apparently what the folks at Taco Bell are expecting.

Pay close attention to the end of this spot:

Kudos to Aasif Mandvi for being able to get through a line of copy that says both, “spend less this summer” and “this week only” without laughing or screaming.

It’s gonna be a short summer, better get a tan while you can.

Taco Bell, Preferred Tacos of Retards

Jeff Ferguson — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:00:38 +0000

Is it really this hard to sell a fucking taco these days?

Below is the train wreck that is the commercial for Taco Bell’s new “Cheesy Double Decker Taco,” the latest attack on America’s colons.

There are so many things wrong with this add that I feel like I’m going insane.

First, why are they all dressed up? Is this a fancy party that is serving Taco Bell tacos as a dining selection? One of the two key girls is wearing friggin’ pearls and one woman walking by is in a silk mini skirt. Either I’m going to the wrong parties or some part of the country is just phoning it in on the catering these days.

Second, and most obvious, what the fuck is wrong with this guy? Is he on E? Is he retarded? Or could he be the one human that really loves tacos that much. Trust me, I loves me some tacos. I even loves me some Taco Bell tacos. But, until tacos cure HIV, I’m just never going to have that much passion for junk food.

Third, where is Taco Bell getting its ingredients that it can still sell anything for less than $1 in the US? I can’t make tacos at home for that little, even if I get all the stuff from Costco, so what’s in those things? I mean, I’ll still set them after a heavy night of drinking, but when I sober up, I better not stink of Soylent Green.

– J

PS – Yes, I used the word retard in the title. Save your comments, they’ll be rightly ignored. The day people started using “mentally challenged” is the day that retard became nothing more than an insult that meant stupid.

A tale of two teams: TV and radio spots for Taco Bell and Dr Pepper.

Jeff Ferguson — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:45:42 +0000

Oftentimes within the deep dark bowels of advertising agencies, when new campaigns are being developed, different creative teams will be assigned to different parts of the campaign. For instance, one team for TV, another for print, another for radio, and then they usually get some kid in the mail room to do the internet part because they blew their budget on TV, print, and radio creative. Sometimes, in fact, the various creative executions are even done by separate agencies all together.

Frankly, I have no friggin’ idea if that was the case with this next set of ads. I’m not a big, old school magazine pretending to be young and hip by having a blog under a different name; I’m just a dude who uses his spare time to escape from the hell his home life has become. So, I don’t have the access to the information other ad review sites have, so I can’t even tell which agencies pull this shit together and frankly, I don’t have the energy to look it up. Basically what I’m saying is, I’m talking out of my ass.

Anyway, my point here is that with the two campaigns I discuss after the jump, I noticed a real difference in the quality of the creative between the radio and TV executions. Now, you may say, well of course, radio got the shaft, but it’s actually not that simple. As you’ll see, for one brand, the radio execution is actually much better than the TV version, but not so much for the other.

First, let’s look at Taco Bell’s new campaign for their 5 Layer Burrito and it’s TV spot:

Wow, what a goofy piece of crap. I get it, the guy is approaching the way too hot to be working at a Taco Bell chick behind the counter like he was buying a car or something and asks her to go get another way too hot to be working at a Taco Bell chick to hook him up with a cheap price. However, it just doesn’t work here and the ad just comes off as stupid.

The guy is way to normal looking to be acting this kind of crazy and/or stupid and the chicks behind the counter react way too calmly to an insane person that is asking for a special deal on a burrito. This dude should be in a long jacket that is partially covering a well-worn Teletubbies t-shirt, with wild strands of hair sticking out from a hat he made from a box of Wheaties and some pipe cleaners.

I could make an easy race joke here about the workers at that Taco Bell but, one, I’m not a racist asshole; and two, when I lived in Wisconsin for awhile, I actually did see some white chicks working behind the counter at fast food places, so this isn’t a complete fantasy… however, they did make them a little too hot to be believed.

Now, on the other hand we have their radio spot, which is take off on the very popular “Tella Novellas” (Spanish language soap operas):

Taco Bell Radio Spot – 5 Layer Burrito – Version 1 Dude

Now that’s actually pretty funny. Sure, it’s a little goofy, but it’s actually meant to be goofy… they committed to the humor and carried it all the way through. Plus, the ending is a little risque for a Taco Bell ad and I like that side of them a lot. Of course, they either had second thoughts about that ending or are testing another because I heard a second version of it the other morning:

Taco Bell Radio Spot – 5 Layer Burrito – Version 2 Affair

The “I’m having an affair, too” bit isn’t as funny as the trans-gender humor, but hey, the ad still works as a whole and I actually enjoy listening to this one rather than watching that train wreck of a TV spot.

Next up, we’ll see the better quality ads switch from radio to TV in an ad for Diet Dr. Pepper.

I actually saw this Diet Dr. Pepper ad in one of my favorite test environments, a bar. You see, most of the time in bars, especially sports bars, you have a dozen TVs running with different games and other programming, but you usually only have the sound up on one of the key games of the day. In this instance, I caught the Diet Dr. Pepper ad on one of the TVs with the sound down, but oddly enough, I got the gist of the concept almost immediately… a support group for imaginary creatures.

For starters, the production value on this ad is impressive. I mean, Diet Dr. Pepper is just selling brown caffeine water, but they obviously spent a shit load on this ad. Look at it, the Rudolph of my youth didn’t look that good. The jokes are funny, the voices are well done. It’s basically a really great ad that is framing a smart concept.

Now, somewhere along the line, the quality of the campaign went to hell in a hurry because the radio spot just didn’t work as well. I think they may have blown their budget on the TV spot.

Dr Pepper Radio Spot – I Exist – Version 1

Now, unlike the Taco Bell TV ad, this radio spot is still kind of funny. The leprechaun’s voice is a little cliche’ and over done, but whatever, how the hell do I know what an imaginary creature really sounds like? They could have nailed it.

Anyway, I think what my problem with this ad is that there’s almost too much of it there. It’s actually the same length as any other radio spot, but man do they try and cram as many jokes on this concept into a very tiny space. Personally, I think if they would have cut some of the weaker jokes out (like the alien picking a side) and just slowed it down a bit, it could have worked a lot better.

Oh wait, did they hear my screams from the 5 freeway?

Dr Pepper Radio Spot – I Exist – Version 2

Nope, that one sucks even more. Well, maybe they didn’t understand what I was screaming as I raced by because this one is almost too slow and, just not as funny. I actually can’t tell if this is just a follow up to the first ad or the agency testing a new concept because the first wasn’t working with audiences. The jokes in this one just don’t work and they slowed down the leprechaun’s patter so much that he sounds like he’s about ready to fall asleep.

* * *

My point to this comparison is that agencies need to use their A game across the entire campaign’s execution. I know times are tough and good people are hard to find, but agencies, you really need to push to make this shit work at every touch point. You guys simply don’t have the luxury of having audiences follow the same media usage patterns that they used to and there is a better chance that your target only heard or saw one execution of a campaign and there’s always a chance it’s going to be the one you half-assed out of the door to make a deadline.

There’s something larger to be said here about pride of workmanship and the responsibility of both the agency and the client to push out the best work possible in the name of making the company as successful as possible. I know this country is going through some economic shit right now and it’s not all bad advertising’s fault, but let me tell you, it’s definitely not helping.

Taco Bell suggests you eat healthier, people freak the f%@k out

Jeff Ferguson — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:00:29 +0000

Pardon me while I open up a bit, but there’s a point to it eventually.

2009 was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Right out of the gate, I lost my job and went through a really messy breakup. Luckily enough, I went back to work after only a couple of months at a much better job and started dating a really cool woman. However, the job loss, breakup, and new job lead to a lot of stress eating and I gained weight faster than an ex-boy bander.

After things settled in at the new gig, I started back at the gym and started watching my calorie intake via a cool little app in my iPhone. You can look in all the all the fab diet books you want, but when it comes down to it, that’s really the key to losing weight… work out more and eat properly. Let me tell you, when you start counting calories, you almost instantly start eating healthier because, surprise, surprise, junk food has a shit load of calories and is usually completely unfulfilling when you’re working out every day.

But I tell you what, I love my Taco Bell. Damn that shit is good. I’m not Hispanic at all, but I grew up in a really heavy Hispanic area in LA, so good Mexican food was all around me, all the time. But damn it if I don’t default to the white boy paradise that is Taco Bell. And, luckily enough, their Fesco Menu fit my my calorie rules quite nicely.

Just before the new year, I popped into my local taco dealership and started seeing the posters for the “Drive-Thru Diet” featuring the very same Fesco Menu I had been enjoying for about six months now and thought, “now that’s kind of clever.”

When I saw the commercial above, I was actually really impressed with the idea. Unlike that goofball over at Subway who only ate Subway sandwiches to lose weight, Taco Bell was serving up the great advice of “hey, eat fewer calories, exercise, and if you need a fast food fix, swing by, we’ve got a cool little menu for you.” The chick in the commercial pulled it off and I know from experience that it’s a pretty tasty substitute for junk food (BTW, I only lost about 15 pounds over the past six months, but I work out a ton and probably have a few more beers on occasion than this lady, so understandably, I’m not 54 pounds lighter).

So, cool, right? Taco Bell isn’t making any crazy claims… eat right, exercise, lay off the junk food. All good. Apparently not, according to Advertising Age (link) and Jezebel (link).

Advertising Age is just reporting the news, so no real dig there. They actually have some great stats on how much people are freaking out over this thing, which is all very interesting if you’re into that kind of data. Jezabel on the other hand is treating Taco Bell like most people treat that one friend who was a total slut in high school and then finds Christ after her drug dealer boyfriend tries to sell her into white slavery for some smack. That is, like shit.

Apparently, Taco Bell isn’t allowed to have a healthy menu because they still have all their old stuff available as well and still push the “Fourth Meal” idea on the stoner crowd. Seriously, Jezebel’s headline was “Taco Bell’s ‘Drive Thru Diet’ Isn’t Really A Diet, After All.”

Oh, what the fuck? Was this really in question? Get over it, lady, it’s clever ad copy not gospel. Every year there are tons of books with some new fad diet, but for some reason, Taco Bell tells you to eat right, exercise, and if you have to come to us for fast food, stick to the Fesco Menu and you decide that they’re selling smack to nuns and puppies?

Tone it down a tad, cub reporter, we’re not that delusional. Give us some credit.

Funny Side Note: After I test published this, I noticed that Google AdSense was already serving ads on the page for the posting for “BBW Dating” sites. Now that’s technology working for you!