I transformed the drive-thru into a stage.
Instead of simply rattling off a list of new value menu items, I created a campaign built around over-the-top Drive-Thru Raps … freestyle-inspired orders as fresh as… well… this campaign turned Taco Bell’s value menu into culture. The spots felt fun, improvised, and native to the audience they were targeting.
But the real insight was this: the campaign only worked once people started rapping their orders themselves.
Impact
What started as a crack-idea became a social phenomenon before “viral” was even a formal social strategy. User-generated videos spread organically across internet forums immediately, local news segments, and social channels, with teenagers essentially turning Taco Bell locations into live performance spaces.
In a now-infamous incident, several teenagers were [unfairly] arrested after repeatedly returning to a Taco Bell drive-thru late at night to perform increasingly brilliant menu raps. Rather than distance the brand from the chaos, my partner and I pushed our corporate Taco Bell clients to embrace the moment and pay the kids’ bail.
