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Taco Bell

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For the restaurants of a similar name, see Taco Bill.
Taco Bell Corp.
Company typeSubsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc.
IndustryQuick Service Restaurants
FoundedDowney, California (March 21, 1962)
HeadquartersIrvine, California
Key people
Glen Bell (founder)
ProductsTacos, burritos, and other Mexican-related fast food
Number of employees
143,000
Websitetacobell.com

Taco Bell Corp., a fast-food restaurant chain, is a division of Yum! Brands, Inc. Taco Bell serves food items loosely based on Tex-mex cuisine, although it has now evolved into a cuisine of its own. It is headquartered in Irvine, California and has locations in the United States, Canada, and Iceland.

As of December 8, 2006, the company is in the middle of an ongoing investigation due to E. coli food poisoning in various stores. At this time, green onions, also known as scallions, are thought to be the source of the problem.

General operations

Taco Bell encourages its diners to "think outside the bun", a reference to its advertising campaign that encourages bypassing the efforts and popularity wars of such hamburger-selling fast food chains as McDonald's and Burger King - through the tortilla instead of the bun. Previously, Taco Bell had a menu item called the "Bell Beefer" (bun, taco spiced beef, lettuce, cheese and tomato) in the mid to late 1980s designed to compete with burger chains. The product did not prove popular and was discontinued. The "Bell Beefer" was also put into the Australian market as the "Big Bell" burger.

Smaller Taco Bell Express outlets, offering a reduced version of the menu, appear in malls, airport terminals, department stores, hotels, cafeterias, gas stations, and other locations. Some school lunch programs also offer Taco Bell items under the Taco Bell Express branding.

The Taco Bell name is also used under license by Kraft Foods, which offers a line of taco shells, spices, salsa, and other Mexican foods (including full meal kits) featuring the Taco Bell name in supermarkets nationwide.

According to the Taco Bell website, there are currently over 6,500 Taco Bell franchises operating in the 48 mainland United States, with 280 non-franchises.

Over the last several years, Yum! Brands, Inc. has been co-locating its various restaurant franchises (KFC, Long John Silver's, A&W and Pizza Hut). Combined Taco Bell/KFC locations are common.

Europe

KFC recently opened a Taco Bell restaurant in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. This is the first Taco Bell Restaurant to be opened in Europe since the closure of their operation in England.

Australia

Australia had the Taco Bell concept introduced a few years back which had "piggybacked" off existing KFC or Pizza Hut sites and had moderate success but had found that Australians were not used to a "fast food Mexican" concept like Taco Bell. The Taco Bell dog was used in commercials shown in Australia. Promotions such as 99-cent tacos were used to encourage customers to try Taco Bell.

All Taco Bell stores have now closed, due to their unpopularity in the Australian marketplace.

History

Taco Bell's original restaurant design.
Taco Bell's second restaurant design
Taco Bell's current restaurant design
Taco Bell's headquarters in Irvine, California

The founder of Taco Bell, Glen Bell, started with a hot dog stand in San Bernardino, California in 1946. After experimenting with alternative food items, he opened three Taco-Tia stands between 1954 and 1955, which he later sold to his partners. He then opened the first Taco Bell in Downey, California on March 21, 1962.

The first Taco Bell franchise was sold in 1964 and the company went public in 1969. In 1978, Bell sold the chain to PepsiCo. The chain was spun off along with Pepsi's other fast food restaurant holdings as Tricon Global Restaurants in October 1997. Tricon became Yum! Brands, Inc. in May 2002.

In the early 1990s, Taco Bell changed its menu due to pressure concerning the nutritional value of items labeled "Lite". It was believed the term lite was vague or possibly deceptive. Many of the items were dropped entirely from the menu; one such item was the "Taco Lite", a fried flour tortilla shell with lean beef, fat free sour cream, lettuce, reduced fat cheese and tomatoes. Some items were altered to change the nutritional values, such as the removal of black olives from the list of ingredients, in an effort to reduce sodium.

In early 1995, Taco Bell transformed the familiar rainbow logo, in favor of a simpler pink/purple combo logo in an effort to revitalize their almost 20 year old logo.

On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it to "the Taco Liberty Bell." Thousands of people who did not immediately get the April Fool's Day hoax protested.

In 2003, Costa Rican Taco Bell franchises temporarily marketed their tacos as "Tacos ticos," because for Costa Ricans, the word "taco" refers to what is known in Mexico as a flauta. ("Tico" and "Costarrican" are colloquial terms for natives of Costa Rica.)

In 2004, a local Taco Bell franchisee bought the naming rights to the former Boise State Pavilion in Boise, Idaho and renamed the stadium the Taco Bell Arena. [3]

In the summer of 2004, PepsiCo and Taco Bell introduced Mountain Dew Baja Blast. The tropical-lime flavored drink is exclusive to Taco Bell stores. Along with this, Taco Bell introduced its Mountain Dew Viva Variety! promotional campaign, where a sign shows three cups of Mountain Dew, one normal, one Code Red and one Baja Blast.

Added to the official menu in early 2006, the Crunchwrap Supreme is Taco Bell's latest permanent product. Their most recent "limited time only" item was the Ultimate Chalupa. It is a chalupa with chicken or steak, sour cream, lettuce, guacamole, 3 cheese blend, and fiesta salsa. Newer items in some franchises are the Spicy Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme and the Nacho Crunch Grilled Stuft Burrito. The newest promotional item is the Chicken Enchilada Grilled Stuft Burrito.

In Canada, there are no Taco Bells in the province of Quebec. Priszm Brandz announced in April 2006 that their first Quebec Taco Bell should open in suburban Montreal during the summer with 20 to 30 more to follow across the province.[1]

Slogans

  • Taca-taca-taca-taca-taca-taca Taco Bell!
  • Ooh! What a difference Taco Bell makes!
  • Make a run for the border.
  • Nothing ordinary about it.
  • Cross the Border.
  • Fetch that food!
  • You can munch it! So good!
  • Taste that food! Dong!
  • Change Is Good.
  • Want some?
  • Yo quiero [I want] Taco Bell.
  • Spice up the night. (For the introduction of open Taco Bells at night)
  • Good To Go (For the Crunchwrap Supreme)
  • The Fourth Meal
  • I'm Full! (For the Big Bell Value Menu)
  • Is it hot in here?
  • Opportunity doesn't knock on a door, it rings a bell ( For employment brochure inside Taco Bell)
  • Think outside the bun.

Mascots

Taco Bell has not had many mascots to this date. In 1995, they introduced two mascots to promote the Taco Bell kids' meal, Nacho and Dog. Nacho is a crazy cat who gets all his knowledge of the world by watching TV and is obsessed with Mexican food. Dog is a dog who is more well-behaved than Nacho and gets all his knowledge of the world by reading books. They were dropped in mid-1997.

In September 1997, the Taco Bell chihuahua was introduced. He spoke the line in commercials for their wildly popular "Yo quiero Taco Bell" campaign. In the Spanish language, yo quiero means I want . The little dog's real name was "Gidget", but that was never publicized in the ad campaign. The character was voiced by comedian Carlos Alazraqui. By 1998, the Taco Bell chihuahua was known as the biggest commercial star on the planet, but his popularity had dropped significantly by 2000. As of the early 2000s, Taco Bell has gone away from the chihuahua and instead has promoted its value menu through "I'm Full!!" commercials and used "Think outside the bun" as its slogan. Gidget did, however, make a cameo in a 2002 Geico commercial where he met Geico's spokes-gecko. That commercial continued to air through 2004.

In 2005, a new campaign to advertise the Crunchwrap Supreme was created. The ad featured twentysomethings at a high tech gadget store meeting a techno geek who espoused the virtues of the Supreme and how it was made "Good to go". The slogan was pushed by an accompanying hand motion done by the actor in the advertisement. Another ad featuring the same actor and tagline was created and aired in 2006. The actor was dropped from the campaign and new ads introduced a family of three who continues to rag on their son, quoting he was "good to go get a job". Several variations of the ad aired using the tag line and hand motion from the first.[4]

Lawsuit

A lawsuit, which was filed in 1998 by Joseph Shields and Thomas Rinks, charged Taco Bell with failing to pay them for use of the Chihuahua character they created. The men claimed that Taco Bell had breached payment on a contract after they worked with the restaurant chain for a year to develop the talking Chihuahua for use in marketing. The talking Chihuahua became a hit with the first advertisement, in which the character bypasses a female Chihuahua for a Taco Bell taco and declares: "Yo quiero Taco Bell." Taco Bell said it would appeal the verdict. The two men got $30.1 million, plus an addition of $11.4 million in interest. [2]

Acquisitions

Boycott

In 2001, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers organized a boycott of Taco Bell restaurants one year after presenting a petition to Yum! Brands Inc., principally demanding higher rates of pay and better conditions for workers on tomato farms in Florida that supply Taco Bell. In 2005, the company responded by meeting the workers' demands, resulting in the boycott being withdrawn. The efforts of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the response of Yum! Brands Inc. to this have been applauded by former American president Jimmy Carter and Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation.

Free-market economists associated with the Acton Institute[3] and the Mises Institute[4][5] have criticized this strategy by arguing that boycotts are generally ineffective at raising standards of living.

Co-branding

A Co-branded Taco Bell and KFC

Many Taco Bell Express brand outlets can be found in suburban strip malls, often adjacent to other Yum!-brand eateries, most notably Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Taco Bell/Pizza Hut combinations are frequently called "Taco Huts" and Taco Bell/KFC combinations have been referred to as "Taco Chickens". Similarly, Taco Bell/Long John Silver's combinations are colloquially referred to as "Taco Silvers".

Sometimes, Taco Bell occupies the same building as a Pizza Hut and a KFC. This threesome is generally known as a "KenTaco Hut".

Big Bell Value Menu

In the late 1980s, Taco Bell was famous for its "59, 79, 99" pricing plan, in which nearly everything on the menu was either 59, 79, or 99 cents.

A Crunchwrap Supreme

Despite Taco Bell's relatively cheap per-item pricing, it never had a true value menu until the mid-2000s. The menu features several items generally priced below $1.49. The introduction of the value menu also brought new items to the restaurant's offerings, notably items made with potatoes and Taco Bell's third dessert, the Caramel Apple Empanada. (Cinnamon Crispas, triangular fried flour tortilla shells, were offered until being replaced by Cinnamon Twists.) The Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito recently replaced the Bean Burrito Especial, which was removed because of its small profit margin. Also of note is that half of the menu is not truly new, as Beef Combo Burritos, Cheesy Bean and Rice Burritos, Double Decker Tacos, and both Spicy Chicken items had been on the regular menu before, as permanent or limited time only items.

The Big Bell Value Menu includes:

  • Grande Soft Taco
  • Double Decker Taco
  • Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito
  • Beef Combo Burrito
  • Beef & Potato Burrito
  • Spicy Chicken Burrito
  • Spicy Chicken Soft Taco
  • Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes
  • Caramel Apple Empanada

Taco Bell Grande

File:Taco Bell-China-Logo.png
Taco Bell Grande's Logo

In 2003, Yum! Brands introduced the Taco Bell brand into People's Republic of China. The Chinese Taco Bell restaurants are not fast-food restaurants like other Taco Bell restaurants are. Instead, they are full-service restaurants called Taco Bell Grande that are more analogus to a Mexican grill in the United States. In addition to the usual taco and burritos, Taco Bell Grande also serves other Mexican cuisine like albóndigas (meatball soup), tomatillo grilled chicken, fajitas, and alcoholic drinks such as Margaritas.

Currently the chain has three restaurants, two in Shenzhen and one in Shanghai.

Current E. Coli Outbreak

In early December 2006, 18 Taco Bells in New Jersey, New York, and the Philadelphia region temporarily closed after at least 62 confirmed cases of E. Coli sickness were linked to these locations. All 14 locations in Delaware also closed voluntarily. After closing, all stores disposed of their entire food supply in order to alleviate the potential for more spread.

The E. Coli has been linked to contaminated green onions grown on a California farm. This incident can be compared to the spinach outbreak of summer 2006. It is also similar to the Hepatitis A outbreak that was spread through green onions by the now defunct Chi Chi's chain of restaurants.

Notable employees

Media References

Film and television
  • The 1993 movie Demolition Man contains several references to Taco Bell as being the only restaurant franchise in the future after the "franchise wars." Presumably there are different levels of Taco Bell restaurants, but "all restaurants are Taco Bell." A portion of the film is set against Taco Bell's corporate headquarters in Irvine, California. The fight scene with Sylvester Stallone at a futuristic Taco Bell was actually at the outdoor break area at Raytheon’s secure "E" Building in El Segundo, California. It was the only outdoor location "futuristic" enough to do the scene at the time. In the German-language dub of the movie, all references to Taco Bell were changed to references to Yum! sister brand Pizza Hut; scenes displaying the Taco Bell logo or signs were either replaced or digitally edited to show a Pizza Hut logo instead.
  • In an episode of the MTV series Beavis & Butt-head, a teacher claims that the only Spanish words that have been learned by the title characters (who are enrolled in a high school Spanish class) were what they learned at Taco Bell ("...and Beavis can't even get that right," the teacher concludes). When asked to speak a sentence in Spanish, Beavis replies, "Spaghetti."
  • The second season episode "Bender Gets Made" of the American animated television series Futurama mentions a hospital called "Taco Bellevue Hospital" wherein a chihuahua with a third eye is seen telling a woman her cyst is "grande".
  • In the 2001 movie Legally Blonde, the Taco Bell chihuahua commercial was briefly shown being watched by the main character's own chihuahua.
  • In the 2004 motion picture Mean Girls, the character Regina is crying over her break-up with her boyfriend when her friend Karen offers to go to Taco Bell in order to feel better.
  • In the 2004 motion picture White Chicks, the character Marcus Copeland, who is dressed like Tiffany Wilson, hands Brittany Wilson's dog over to the footboy saying: "[...] teach him how to say ‘Yo quiero Taco Bell!’".
  • In the Family Guy episode "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter", Stewie makes a mention of Taco Bell.
  • In The Venture Bros. episode "Trial of the Monarch", Dr. Orpheus warns Brock not to be too hasty entering the restroom because he "had Taco Bell for lunch."
  • In one GEICO commercial, the Taco Bell Chihuahua is seen. He says, "Oh great, a talking gecko!"
Music
  • In 1979, the rock band Supertramp sang, "I'm in this dumb hotel near the Taco Bell without a hope in hell..." in their song "Gone Hollywood".
  • In the 2001 song "Danger! High Voltage!" by Electric Six, they make a reference to there being a "Fire in the Taco Bell!".
  • Zox's song "Homebody" makes reference to eating at Taco Bell and getting high.
  • The title track from Midnight Brown's 2004 alblum, 2084, refrenced "In the future all resturants are Taco Bells". Which is also a reference to the 1993 film Demolition Man.
  • The Band T-Unit often references Taco Bell in their Music, most notably, "Why Don't We Do It In The Road" and "Thank You For Calling".

Trivia

  • There is Yakov Smirnoff joke - "There are no Taco Bells in Russia. They didn't like the slogan, 'Run for the border'."

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/headline_news/article.jsp?content=b0427105A
  2. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2003-06-04-taco-bell-lawsuit_x.htm
  3. ^ Sirico, Fr. Robert. "Help Poor Workers; Eat Taco Bell Tomatoes." Acton Institute. 1 July 2004. .PDF
  4. ^ D'Amico, Daniel. "That Taco Bell Boycott." Mises.org. 4 October 2004. [1]
  5. ^ Carden, Art. "That Taco Bell Brouhaha." Mises.org. 10 January 2005. [2]
  6. ^ "List of Grammy Nominees". CNN. 1996-01-04. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
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