Taco Bell’s PR Stunt – Where did their Bell go?

For a while, London did not have a bell due to construction efforts on Big Ben, the city’s iconic clocktower. However, Taco Bell worked with the city to give back the sound Londoners haven’t heard for a long time, which was a perfect opportunity for the brand to raise awareness of their new restaurants opening in London.

Ahead of their PR stunt, Taco Bell removed their bell logo on their social media, creating curiosity to their followers (see below). As the brand is known to be one of the leaders in creating controversy amongst social media especially Twitter, it was a strategic move to make to their followers.

Although Big Ben’s bell was not working, Taco Bell surprised Londoners “with a sound of their own: its signature bell digitized to recreate the Westminster chimes” (2018, QSR). The sound was designed to ensure people can hear the chimes. As soon as the chimes triggered on November 19, Taco Bell’s iconic bell logo returned. Londoners were also very surprised to hear the sound when this happened.

This PR marketing stunt created quite a stir amongst U.K’s media and the city itself before “Taco Bell’s first London restaurant opening” (2018, QSR), which was a successful strategy for the brand.

Taco Bell came up with a creative yet innovative experience to captivate the public’s attention. They have utilized social media to create curiosity amongst their followers and they remained consistent with their brand messaging. They stayed consistent with today’s trends and utilized social media effectively. The PR stunt made sense because they utilized an iconic bell to assist with the strategy and to deliver their message, which was to show Londoners they are now here in the U.K. As a person working in PR, I felt the method they used was creative as they increased their brand awareness to break into a city that did not have a Taco Bell restaurant.

References:

McCarthy, John (2018). Taco Bell pranks public to think idle Big Ben chimes once more. Retrieved from https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/11/20/taco-bell-pranks-public-think-idle-big-ben-chimes-once-more

QSR Magazine (2018). Taco Bell Rings Big Ben’s Bell Ahead of London Debut. Retrieved from https://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/taco-bell-rings-big-bens-bell-ahead-london-debut