Tacos are 88% Beef, 12% Rude

As someone who has (thankfully) never been on the receiving side of a lawsuit about the percentage of beef in my tacos, I guess I really can't judge how severe my feelings would be hurt.

One thing I know for sure is, I certainly wouldn't respond the way Taco Bell did.

For those of you not paying attention to lawsuits in the QSR world, back in January a Montgomery, Alabama-based law firm, Beasley Allen, filed a lawsuit alleging that Taco Bell is partaking in false advertising by calling the meat they use in their tacos as "beef." The lawfirm goes on to allege that Taco Bell's beef only really contains 36% beef.

Worried, and rightly so, of the negative publicity Taco Bell would receive from this lawsuit, Greg Creed, President of Taco Bell, issued a statement, took to YouTube, AND launched a multi-million dollar Campaign dispelling the myth of their beef content brought up by the lawsuit.



From a PR standing, they handled this correctly. They got in front of the matter, made the conversation about the truth, and handled negative publicity with special offers and free tacos.

They even released the recipe!
• 88% USDA-inspected quality beef
• 3-5% water for moisture
• 3-5% spices (including salt, chili pepper, onion powder, tomato powder, sugar, garlic powder, cocoa powder and a proprietary blend of Mexican spices and natural flavors).
• 3-5% oats, starch, sugar, yeast, citric acid, and other ingredients that contribute to the quality of our product.

Obviously overmatched and bested, the lawfirm correctly backed off and dropped the charges.

Now, the story could have ended right there. Both sides could have nodded agreeingly, and went home to be with their families.

Not Taco Bell. No sir.

With the dropping of the lawsuit and Taco Bell's name cleared, Taco Bell feels so slighted that they have now gone on the offensive.

Today, they ran the below full page ads in the Wall Street Journal, LA Times, and the New York Times as well had their President get back on YouTube with the video: "Beef Lawsuit Dropped, Lawyers got it wrong!"



I can understand them responding to the inital lawsuit but continuing the campaign and rubbing the fact they "won" in the face of the lawfirm just feels like overkill to me.

The damage is done, Taco Bell, take you and your parent company, Yum! Brands' increased quarterly profits and just be done with the issue. At least they didn't make the lawfirm do this:




Sean Sutherland, Associate Account Executive/Fan of the Cheesy Gordita Crunch (regardless of the reel beef percentage)

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Saftey Frist

Being that I started at Renegade as a proofreader, this is a topic of discussion I hold close to my heart. Here's a picture of the warning label on the "Cheetah" Stun Gun my friend received this Christmas.


You'll note it reads, "Compact Size, Saftey Switch, Free Holster."

The spelling mistake alone wasn't enough for me to explore this product further, but then I thought, what does a cheetah have to do with a device that can administer 1.5 million volts? Other than the next time you're being mugged, making you think, Man, I wish I could run like a cheetah, rather than have to trust my life to a stun gun manufacturer that can't spell safety right.

So I visited www.cheetahstunguns.com/, and here's what I found. Click to enlarge.

1) Safety isn't the only word they can't spell right. They twice refer to the product as the "Sun Gun." That's like Nike saying they sell speakers. 2) Apparently geocities still does web work, because it looks like this site was designed in 1997. 3) An important selling feature of this Sun Gun is the "cool Cheetah logo." I understand asking to see the label for a premium product and all, but did Smith & Wesson advertise their logo or did they advertise the ease with which someone might "cap" a would-be assailant?

There's a small, obvious lesson to be learned. If you proofread and no one remarks, "Hey, they took the time to proofread," no big deal. If you don't proofread and no one notices, again, not a problem. But if you make a small mistake and your client takes big notice after you've printed two million copies, that's gonna cost somebody a lot of money, and even if your client foots the bill, you may not be the first company they call for their next print job.

Also, when a company gets little details right, it gives you more faith that they'll get the big details right, like halting a mugging and not electrocuting yourself.

I've already begged my friend to never use this product. I say give it to the mugger and wait for him to shock himself with it. Or better yet, carry the $100 this costs with you, and just give it to the guy mugging you. At least you'll know it was well-spent.

--George Convery, Copywriter

PS I'll give a bonus fact if someone can spot my spelling mistake in the body of this post. Good luck. Alicia, you're not allowed to play.

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