208) Taco Bell Commercials

The vast and storied history of fast food advertising has its share of high points (Ronald McDonald and his cadre of acid-trip and/or tainted "meat"-inspired companions; Harold and Kumar's 90-minute magnum opus celebration of cardboard-based burgers; absolutely any and every Jack in the Box commercial) and low points (delusional Wendy's commercials featuring well-adjusted upper-middle class happily married couples dining at Wendy's, with actual silverware; the ungodly marriage of Paris Hilton and Carl's Junior).



But no institution has ever achieved as perfectly proportional a level of quality of food to quality of advertising as Taco Bell, whose commercials lead one to the inevitable conclusion that Taco Bell's marketing department must either a) be clinically insane, b) high, c) clinically insane due to having consumed whatever Taco Bell passes off as "food", or d) all of the above.

Take the mid-90s, for instance, when Taco Bell decided the best way to declare its hipness was to name Little Richard, a man whose popularity peaked a mere 40 years earlier, as the public face of its franchise. The reasoning seemed to be something along the lines of this: "You know what all the kids like these days? Grunge music! And you know what grunge music is? Rock n Roll! And you know who used to be considered a rock n roll artist?? See where I'm going with this??"

Or take more recent advertising, which saw Taco Bell introduce the world to the non-word "melty", which is every bit as cringe-inducing and stomach-churning as the very thought of consuming two bean "burritos" and a large Mr. Pibb. Or, better yet, Taco Bell's false and unfounded claim that anything containing what once could have been described as "lettuce" presented in something vaguely bowl-shaped "technically" constitutes a salad!

Still, all of these ad campaigns lack the poetry and head-slapping inanity of the Taco Bell chihuahua. Chihuahuas! Chihuahuas are Mexican (probably)! And Taco Bell is supposed to also be Mexican (in a similar way that Olive Garden is Italian, or that Madonna is British)!

And so Taco Bell unleashed a seemingly endless series of advertising on us all, with the soberingly honest message , "Taco Bell: Well, dogs seem to like it."



Fair enough, Taco Bell. Fair enough.

(In Memorium: Taco Bell Chihuahua - 1994-2009)