The classic Taco Bell logo used from 1985 to 1994. It is still in use at many older Taco Bell locations.

 

Taco Bell's original restaurant design with its first logo sign in Wausau, Wisconsin.Demolished May 5, 2010.

 

A Taco Bell restaurant design that was popular in the 1980s and 1990s, and remains the most common design today.

 

Taco Bell's current restaurant design introduced in the 2000s.

 

History

Founding and growth

Taco Bell was founded by Glen Bell who first opened a hot dog stand called Bell’s Drive-In in San Bernardino, California in 1946 when he was 23 years old. Six years later, he sold the stand and opened a new one two years later, this time selling tacos under the name of Taco-Tia. Over the next few years Bell owned and operated a number of restaurants in southern California including four called El Taco. Bell sold the El Tacos to his partner and built the first Taco Bell in Downey in 1962. In 1962, he sold Taco-Tia. Kermit Becky, a former Los Angeles police officer, bought the first Taco Bell franchise from Glen Bell in 1964, and located it in Torrance. The company grew rapidly, and by 1967, the 100th restaurant opened at 400 South Brookhurst in Anaheim. In 1970, Taco Bell went public with 325 restaurants. In 1978, PepsiCo purchased Taco Bell from Glen Bell.

 

Concepts

In 1991, Taco Bell opened the first Taco Bell Express in San Francisco. This concept is a reduced-size restaurant with a limited menu (primarily items priced under $1), meant to emphasize volume. Taco Bell Express locations operate primarily inside convenience stores, truck stops, shopping malls, and airports.

 

Taco Bell began co-branding with KFC in 1995, when the first such co-brand opened in Clayton, North Carolina. The chain has since co-branded with Pizza Hut[5] and Long John Silver's as well.

 

In 1997, PepsiCo experimented with a new "fresh grill" concept, opening at least one Border Bell restaurant in Mountain View, California on El Camino Real (SR 82). In addition to a subset of the regular Taco Bell menu, Border Bell offered Mexican-inspired items like those available from Chevys Fresh Mex restaurants (then owned by PepsiCo), such as Chevys signature sweet corn tamalito pudding and a fresh salsa bar. Close to the time that PepsiCo spun off its restaurant business in 1997, the Border Bell in Mountain View was closed and converted to a Taco Bell restaurant, which is still open as of 2012.

 

Dispute with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

In March 2005, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) won a landmark victory in its national boycott of Taco Bell for human rights. Taco Bell agreed to meet all of the coalition's demands to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers in its supply chain.

 

After four years of a tenacious and growing boycott, Taco Bell and Yum! Brands agreed to make an agreement called the CIW-Yum agreement with representatives of CIW at Yum! Brands headquarters. The CIW-Yum agreement set several precedents, establishing:
 

• The first direct, ongoing payment by a fast-food industry leader to farm workers in its supply chain to address substandard farm-labor wages (nearly doubling the percentage of the final retail price that goes to the workers who pick the produce).
 

• The first enforceable Code of Conduct for agricultural suppliers in the fast-food industry (which includes the CIW, a worker-based organization, as part of the investigative body for monitoring worker complaints).
 

• Market incentives for agricultural suppliers willing to respect their workers’ human rights, even when those rights are not guaranteed by law;
 

• Full transparency for Taco Bell’s tomato purchases in Florida; the agreement commits Taco Bell to buy only from Florida growers who agree to the pass-through and to document and monitor the pass-through, providing complete records of Taco Bell’s Florida tomato purchases and growers’ wage records to the CIW.

 

Advertising

 

Taco Bell's current headquarters in Irvine, California next to the Irvine Spectrum Center.

 

Taco Bell's former headquarters in Irvine, California.

 

In March 2001, Taco Bell announced a promotion to coincide with the re-entry of the Mir space station. They towed a large target out into the Pacific Ocean, announcing that if the target was hit by a falling piece of Mir, every person in the United States would be entitled to a free Taco Bell taco. The company bought a sizable insurance policy for this gamble.No piece of the station struck the target.

 

In 2004, a local Taco Bell franchisee bought the naming rights to the Boise State Pavilion in Boise, Idaho and renamed the stadium Taco Bell Arena.[11]Also, in 2004, Mountain Dew offered Taco Bell stores the exclusive right to carry Mountain Dew Baja Blast, a tropical-lime-flavored variety of the popular soft drink chemically formulated to taste good with their food.

 

In 2007, Taco Bell offered the "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" promotion—if any player from either team stole a base in the 2007 World Series the company would give away free tacos to everyone in the United States in a campaign similar to the Mir promotion, albeit with a much higher likelihood of being realized. After Jacoby Ellsbury of the Boston Red Sox stole a base in Game 2, the company paid out this promotion on October 30, 2007. This promotion was used again in the 2008 World Series, when Jason Bartlett of the Tampa Bay Rays stole a base during Game 1 at Tropicana Field, which was paid out on October 28, 2008.

 

Taco Bell sponsors a promotion at home games for both the Portland Trail Blazers and the Cleveland Cavaliers in which everyone in attendance receives a coupon for a free Chalupa if the home team scores 100 points or more.

 

In 2009, Taco Bell introduced a music video style commercial entitled, "It's all about the Roosevelts" composed and produced by Danny de Matos at his studio for Amber Music on behalf of DraftFCB Agency. Featuring Varsity Fanclub's Bobby Edner, the rap music style commercial shows a group of friends gathering change as they drive toward Taco Bell. The commercial represents Taco Bell's first foray into movie theater advertising, featuring the ad during the opening previews of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Public Enemies as well as screens in some movie theater lobbies.

 

On July 1, 2009, Taco Bell has replaced 20-year sponsor McDonald's as the fast food partner of the NBA. Taco Bell and the NBA agreed on a 4 year deal allowing them to advertise on ABC, TNT and ESPN, and NBA-themed promotions. 

 

Infomercial salesman Billy Mays signed a deal in June 2009 to shoot infomercial-style commercials for the chain, with filming to begin in August. His unexpected death from a heart attack on June 28, 2009 canceled those plans.

 

On July 21, 2009, Gidget, the Chihuahua featured in Taco Bell ads in the late 1990s, was euthanized after suffering a stroke.She was 15 years old.

 

2009 commercials for the "Frutista Freeze" frozen drink feature Snowball, an Eleonora Cockatoo noted for his ability to dance to human music.

 

In an effort to promote its $2 Meal Deals, Taco Bell started a Facebook group in June 2010 to collect signatures on a petition that appeals to the Federal Reserve to produce more two-dollar bills.

 

A large advertising push by Taco Bell was begun in late February 2011 in response to a consumer protection lawsuit filed against the company by an Alabama law firm. The promotion sought to counter allegations that the company falsely advertised the ratio of ingredients of its beef filling for its tacos. The spots featured employees and franchisees stating that the filling has always been a mixture of 88% beef and various spices and binders and nothing else. The ad followed several full page print ads in the New York Times and other newspapers that featured the headline "Thank you for suing us."

 

Additionally, the chain added a new social campaign using Twitter and Facebook. The company invested heavily in the campaign, spending more than $3 million (USD) putting out its message - about 20 percent more than the company usually spends on an advertising program. The various campaigns came shortly before the company began its official response to the suit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California and were designed to bring public opinion into their camp. Various analysts stated that the company would have been better off using a grass-root campaign that involved in store advertising and other non-broadcast media. The suit was eventually withdrawn, and the company continued its advertising response by publicly requesting an apology from the suing firm of Beasly Allen. Analyst Laura Ries, of marketing strategy firm Ries&Ries, stated she believed Taco Bell's latest response was a mistake. She went on to comment that reviving memories of a suit that the majority of the public had forgotten after the initial burst of publicity, commenting "when you run these ads defending, defending, defending, sometimes people think, "Well, wait a minute, why are they trying so hard to defend themselves?"

 

In the spring of 2012 Taco Bell teamed up with Frito Lay and created the Doritos Locos Tacos, which is a supreme taco with a Nacho Cheesier Dorito taco shell and coming later in the fall of 2012 a Cool Ranch taco shell. In early 2012, Taco Bell announced they would be launching a new line of breakfast menu items including, a Johnsonville Foods sausage and egg wrap, breakfast burritos, hash browns, Cinnabon Delights, Seattle's Best Coffee, and orange juice. And, yet again, Taco Bell is releasing a Mountain Dew infused drink called Mountain Dew A.M.

 

On June 6, 2012 Taco Bell announced it would be testing a new "Cantina Menu" with upscale items in their Kentucky & California restaurants. The new menu will be created by celebrity chef Lorena Garcia, which will feature black beans, cilantro rice, citrus and herb marinated chicken and cilantro dressing. The "Cantina Burrito Bowl" and "Cantina Burrito", offered with chicken or steak, will be sold for nearly $5(US) apiece. A vegetarian option will also be offered for about $5(US). New side dishes will also be available, including chips and pico de gallo or corn salsa, chips and guacamole, or black beans and rice. Sides will sell for around $1.49 a piece.