Laguna Hills-based Del Taco is again tweaking giant rival Taco Bell in an ad campaign, launching two TV spots this week shot in front of its competitor’s headquarters in Irvine.
The ads,which, along with radio spots, promote Del Taco’s new Big Fat Crispy Chicken Taco offering,feature a fictitious Del Taco product development employee named Dan who tries to flaunt the new tacos in front of Taco Bell employees.
(The Dan character was created by the LA-based G & M; Plumbing ad shop for Del Taco after Mexican fast-food chain abandoned ads featuring a Zorro-like character. Those ads, created by LA-based WongDoody, sparked a lawsuit by Universal Studios, holder of the Zorro trademark.)
In one of the new spots, Dan runs around Taco Bell’s headquarters carrying a giant photo of the new taco and taunting the rival’s employees until he collapses on the sidewalk. The second ad shows Dan unveiling a sign featuring the new taco across the street from Taco Bell’s headquarters. He is defeated when a truck parks in front of his sign, blocking it from view.
It’s not the first time the upstart Del Taco, which counts 360 units and annual revenue last year of $280 million, has taken a shot at Taco Bell in its advertising. One ad last year featured a chauffeur-driven Chihuahua,a reference to Taco Bell’s ubiquitous advertising mascot,in a Del Taco drive-through. However, the new ads are more explicit in needling the Mexican-food behemoth, which has some 7,000 units and $5.2 billion in system-wide 1999 sales.
Del Taco’s 1999 ad budget was about $5.2 million, compared with Taco Bell’s $206.3 million, according to Competitive Media Reporting. Taco Bell spends about 60% of that on network TV, whereas Del Taco airs on local programs.
Del Taco’s tactics are unusual, but not unheard of, say ad industry veterans. Perhaps the most famous example is the “Pepsi Challenge” campaign featuring taste tests of that brand against Coca-Cola.
“Taco Bell spends a lot more money on advertising, so if Del Taco does break through, when the Taco Bell spots run, people may subconsciously think of Del Taco,” said Gary Szenderski, president of SzenderskiRohani Worldwide in Irvine. But, he added, there’s a danger of Del Taco not differentiating itself from Taco Bell, and the ads instead reinforcing the competing brand.
The Del Taco campaign will be running in Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Las Vegas, Modesto, Sacramento, Palm Springs, and Salt Lake City. The radio campaign also is running in Bullhead City, Flagstaff, Reno, Phoenix, San Diego, and Yuma.
Neither Taco Bell nor its ad agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day of Los Angeles, would comment on the Del Taco campaign. n
Nine Named OC’s
Entrepreneurs of Year
Ernst & Young named nine OC “Entrepreneurs of the Year” at a banquet and ceremony last week.
They are:
– Robert A. Lotter, CEO, R.A. Lotter Financial Group, Newport Beach (business services)
– S. Lee Hancock, president and CEO, Go2 Systems, Inc., Irvine (emerging e-commerce)
– Donald M. Earhart, chairman, president and CEO, I-Flow Corp., Lake Forest (healthcare)
– Faith Freeman, CEO, and Scott Freeman, president, Primal Elements, Garden Grove (manufacturing)
– Kenneth B. Roath, chairman, president and CEO, Health Care Property Investors (HCPI), Newport Beach (real estate)
– Vincent C. Smith, chairman and CEO, Quest Software, Inc., Irvine (software)
– Paul F. Folino, president and CEO, Emulex Corp., Costa Mesa; and H. K. Desai, chairman, president and CEO, QLogic Corp., Aliso Viejo (technology)
