IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Taco Bell

  • Taco Bell’s commercial brings more than hexagon-shaped sandwiches

    Taco Bell is known for its unique food the company creates, but it’s recently known for something a little more bizarre: its new advertising campaign, “Routine Republic.” The advertising video depicts a world where the government emphasizes sameness and everyone is eating the same circle breakfast sandwiches.

    However, two people decide to rebel and break out of the controlled world they lived in and head to greater, happier places that have hexagon-shaped breakfast sandwiches.

    The target audience appears to be customers who eat breakfast at other fast-food chains, particularly McDonalds as the familiar clowns are depicted as the dictators who slide down slides and have ball pits. But, did Taco Bell miss the target by featuring propaganda imagery? Although the company is attempting to advertise their newest commodity–breakfast–doing so by reflecting Communism has stirred up controversy.

    According to Marshall McLuhan, the “medium is the message,” and found that audiences are too often distracted by the content of the medium that we miss the overall point. The video advertisement that is centered around a communist-driven theme could deter from Taco Bell effectively targeting its intended audience because viewers are too caught up trying to understand the commercial.

    Commentators on the video responded with more questions about the setting of the commercial than an initial reaction to the new product. People were also bothered by the imagery and scary clowns who run the Routine Republic. This proves McLuhan’s theory that the medium is the message because many viewers are more focused on the overall concept and medium as opposed to the actual content.

    Although, Taco Bell could be trying to target a younger audience–as seen with the young characters–who would not necessarily be offended by the propaganda.
    Do you think Taco Bell’s commercial was effective, or were you too distracted by the content and missed the point?

    -Kaitlyn Russell, Hannah Rodgers, Anna Joy Zima

  • Branding Through Your Speakers

    Nowadays it is almost impossible to escape the sounds of music. Beginning with your morning alarm, music can be heard throughout the day whether through a ringtone, car stereo, speakers, or even advertisements. Many companies are harping on this trend by finding ways to integrate particular artists, bands and up-and-coming music groups into their brands.

    The use of music is a strategic marketing tactic because it helps to bridge the gap between companies and consumers by allowing them to share similar lifestyles. If the music used in advertisements positively resonates with the audience, then it is likely that the product will, in-turn, be portrayed positively. According to Simmons and Simmons, “Consumers who live part of their lives through music are passionate people who care about the content they chose to engage in.” This is why the use of music must match the purpose of the message in order to be memorable and thus successful.

    The Uses and Gratifications Theory can also be incorporated into this idea of music and branding. This theory deals with how people use media to their advantage, either to gain something or form some sort of image/relationship with something else. Consumers are also able to use the media for reference to gain knowledge about a brand and their products.  In this case, brands are using music to help form their image and how they want to be seen by their publics.  By purposefully incorporating artists that they think will further their particular commercial, campaign or even runway show, brands can use music to solidify their message and image.

    Taco Bell’s commercial for Doritos Locos Tacos incorporates the use of music by featuring “Take a Walk” by Passion Pit. The commercial features the quick paced song along with multiple snapshots of tacos piling up on top of each other while moving across the screen.  At the end of the ad, the voiceover says “Taking tacos where no one thought they would go.”  This is a small but memorable connection to the title of the song played in the background and would be noticeable to anyone who knew the title or heard the lyrics.  The message Taco Bell was trying to send their audience was that their tacos are easy to take on-the-go and are able to be eaten everywhere.

    Can you think of any examples of how a brand has used a popular artist in their commercial?  How has the music affected the way you think of the brand or company?

     -Aaron Love, Kara Zimmerman, Rachel Clay, Rebecca Hobbs

  • Summertime and the Advertising is Easy

    Spring is in full bloom! Finally the days of heavy coats and freezing rain are over. The weather has finally warmed up and summer is clearly on the horizon. Despite these changes in weather, have you noticed any other changes? What about advertising? It is no secret how brands transform their advertising campaigns depending on the season. But how can they become even more advanced in this approach? The answer is location-based mobile advertisements.

    According to Adweek.com, more and more companies are using location-based mobile ads to target consumers in real time based on the weather. In fact, Twitter and The Weather Chanel have agreed to a partnership for a weather-based ad-targeting product, which use promotional tweets based on current weather. For example, Taco Bell is using this new ad app to run mobile ads through May only when the temperature exceeds 48 degrees. This way, Taco Bell only has to pay for mobile advertisements when the weather matches their summer campaigns, calling for consumers to buy some food and head outside.

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    Other brands, such as Ace Hardware have seen great success using this weather-based advertising technique. This is an extremely smart tactic, using mobile advertising, because they can catch their consumers in real-time through a medium that will always be with them. As you have read earlier this week, we are in an age of digital technology, and almost everyone has a smart phone these days. Consumers will see these ads whenever they use an application on their phone, and the advertisements are even more specially targeted to their audience by focusing on location.

    Mobile advertising is a technique that is taking advantage of our fast, intuitive minds. As Daniel Kahneman suggests in Thinking Fast and Slow, the human mind has two systems at work.  System 1 uses fast thinking and makes spur of the moment decisions. When a consumer has a very targeted advertisement show up on their phone, it may spark a quick decision. Think of this: weather is warm, you’re hungry, and bam!…Taco Bell pops up on your phone showing a variety of tasty, summery foods to satisfy your appetite and quench your summer-mood. Next thing you know, you are in the drive through of Taco Bell with your windows down. These advertisements appeal to the impulsive nature of system 1.

    Paul Gelb, head of strategy for the “MoPub’s” mobile ad network, says it best: “We are just beginning to see the potential of these opportunities because we are now able to reach people in ways that we couldn’t before.” The behavioral insights that location data gives advertisers allows them to successfully deliver mobile audiences based on actual consumer activity. In fact, being able to directly target mobile devices of possible customers, while they are on-the-go, represents the future of mobile marketing. It is safe to say, that the advertising world is at a tipping point in consumer usage of the mobile medium.

    –Julia Tompkins & Sasha De Vecchi

  • The Next Big Thing… Coming Soon.

    Have YOU had the Cool Ranch Doritos Locos taco yet?  I can’t say that I was waiting anxiously outside of my local Taco Bell on March 7th when this new wonder debuted, but millions of taco fans could barely contain their excitement.  Not convinced?  Follow Taco Bell on Twitter or Facebook and you’ll experience the overwhelming response.  On March 4th Taco Bell announced via social media that fans could get the new Cool Ranch DLT (Doritos Locos Taco) a day early and the response was a mix of joy and outrage.  Many fans hopped on the chance to indulge while others were shocked to discover that their local chain had not gotten the memo.

    It seems that Taco Bell knows exactly what their fans want and have aimed to deliver.  In fact, the franchise has focused their advertising for the new DLT on their fans.  Working their fan base, the earliest announcements of the new taco came in the form of teasers, meant to fuel the DLT craze and build anticipation.

    Next came a series of ads featuring tweets from fans about the new taco sensation. Since the rise of social media, companies have been able to receive more direct feedback from their fans and have taken advantage of this in their ads.  Through these ads Taco Bell is not only able to highlight fan comments, but also feature these fans in the ad, emphasizing their delight in finally having the Cool Ranch DLT.


    Starting to sound familiar? You might be thinking back to the iPhone 5 and Apple’s promise to finally deliver all of the features that fans have been anxiously awaiting.  So is this new, fan-based advertising genius or overdone?  That’s up for us as consumers to decide.  After all, gone are the days of simply consuming advertising.  Today, we can all be a part of the magic behind the ads.

    – Ally Walton

  • The Old and The Reckless

    The commercials from last Sunday’s Super Bowl have been flooding social media sites as they get passed around by friends. The Taco Bell “Viva Young” commercial has been  particularly popular with over two million views on YouTube. The commercial starts with a nurse at a retirement home putting an older man to bed. Then the old man sneaks off with friends to acquire the life of the young and, of course, “Fourth Meal” at Taco Bell.  This unusual group of pranksters are seen pool hopping, lighting firecrackers and even getting down in the clubs. The group building up a hunger ends their night at the Taco Bell Parking lot, and walking back to the retirement home as the sun rises. The song “We Are Young” by Fun, is played in Spanish (of course)to maintain brand continuity. Interestingly, that particular song became popular during last year’s Super Bowl; when it appeared in a Chevy commercial.

    While watching the game, a friend said “talking babies and crazy old people always make the best commercials”. It is interesting to me that the most entertaining commercials are based on events that do not happen often (or at all!) The concept of “old folks” having partying hard and reliving their youth is entertaining and hilarious. This idea has been used before; the artist Modestep released a music video for their song “Sunlight”. This video was posted on YouTube on July 3, 2011 and has over twenty-two million views. The Modestep video has the same idea as the commercial but is not censored by the FCC. The Taco Bell commercial is a “clean” version of this music video as much of the material is not suitable for U.S. television. It Is remarkable to see music culture influencing the types of commercials we see.

    The stylistic features of the commercial and music video are similar. Certain aspects, such as the shot angle and exposures, are close to the same. The idea of the older people going crazy and partying hard that Taco Bell portrays take you by surprise, particularly while considering that most of the commercials promoting their unique concept of “Fourth Meal” have been targeted to their younger consumers (who are more likely to be up late). This commercial appears to actively debunk the stereotype that elderly people are typically in bed by nine. It is interesting to see the commercial feature a group of people who may or may not consume Taco Bell given the primary target audience of most Super Bowl ads. Is this an opportunity for Taco Bell to expand to more mature (or not-so-mature) markets or just another opportunity to entertain the younger population at the expense of the older one? Regardless it is a reminder to “Live Mas” and while doing so, fill your hunger with Taco Bell.

    – Zach Abramo, Callie Fenlon, Lauren Habig,  Alexandra Huss, Michael Nunes, Daniel Schaefer, Dann Williams