Taco Liberty Bell

The Taco Liberty Bell was an April Fool's Day joke played by fast food restaurant chain Taco Bell. On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in seven leading U.S. newspapers including "The New York Times" announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell". Thousands of people protested before it was revealed at noon April 1 that the sale was a hoax. [cite news
url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0330/p18s01-hfks.html
title=Historic hoaxes
author=Sara Steindorf
date=March 30 2004
work=Kidspace
publisher=The Christian Science Monitor
accessdate=2008-01-18]
White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry responded that the federal government was also "selling the Lincoln Memorial to Ford Motor Co. and renaming it the Lincoln-Mercury Memorial."cite web |url=http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Taco_Liberty_Bell/ |title=The Taco Liberty Bell |accessdate=2007-04-01 |last=Boese |first=Alex |year=2002 |work=Museum of Hoaxes]

Influence

The prank was considered a successful advertising gambit by those involved. David Paine, a public relations consultant, called it "the most successful project I've been involved with". The campaign cost was just $300,000, but it generated an estimated $25 million equivalent in free publicity, with a sales increase exceeding $1 million for the first two days in April. Paine, however, feels that the climate today is much more cautious and a comparable prank is not possible.cite news
url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-31371252_ITM
title=Fools' paradise: Some of the greatest April pranks in history
author=Charles Leroux
date=March 31 2006
publisher=Chicago Tribune
accessdate=2008-01-18] The origin is credited to the mother of then-CEO John Martin.

The stunt has also been listed as one of the top hoaxes or marketing stunts over the years. "Entrepreneur Magazine" includes it among its "Top 10 Successful Marketing Stunts". [cite web
url=http://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/163762.html
title=Top 10 Successful Marketing Stunts
author=
date=
publisher=Entrepreneur Magazine
accessdate=2008-01-22] The Museum of Hoaxes ranks it as #4 on its list of the "Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time". [cite web
url=http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/index/
title=Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time
publisher=Museum of Hoaxes
accessdate=2008-01-22]

According to marketing author Thomas L. Harris, the stunt worked because "in today's world ... almost everything is corporate-sponsored", making the announcement believable even for "a national historic monument." The company coined the term "publitisement" to describe its stunt, "breaking through advertising clutter to achieve massive awareness" for its then-new "Nothing Ordinary About It" ad campaign. [cite book
title=Value-Added Public Relations: The Secret Weapon of Integrated Marketing
author=Thomas L. Harris
year=1998
publisher=McGraw-Hill Professional
isbn=0844234125] From the other side, activist Paul Rogat Loeb lamented that the hoax "felt too real for comfort" in an era "when every value, ideal, and public symbol has a profit-seeking sponsor." [cite book
title=Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time
author=Paul Rogat Loeb
year=1999
publisher=St. Martin's Press
isbn=0312204353]

ee also

*Taco Bell
*Liberty Bell

References

External links

* [http://www.painepr.com/case_studies2.asp?nav=quicktime&content=tacolibertybell PainePR] was the ad agency responsible for the ad
* [http://www.libertybellmuseum.com/ Liberty Bell Museum]