The 90’s had some great commercials but for my time between shows, the best was the “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” chihuahua. This ad campaign put Taco Bell on the pop culture map. When you saw one of those bobble-head dogs on somebody’s dashboard you couldn’t help but utter the phrase. It was a way of making taco bell Mexican again as well. It had started as a quite vanilla company selling Mexican food. When it was acquired by Pepsico in the late 80’s, the authenticity of the brand waxed and waned. This slogan used actual Spanish and it was catchy, anybody could say it! Instead of having to understand the conjugation of the very querer in the first person “yo,” anytime could just repeat this phrase and say “I want some Taco Bell” in perfect Spanish.
Ironically, the years this slogan was on the airwaves, Taco Bell’s sales slumped. They fired the ad creator and hired new ones. Sales did increase after the new campaigns were in place. I don’t think Taco Bell will ever get a better spokesperson however than that little chihuahua, he was definitely cooler than Spuds Mackenzie or any other dog I’ve seen on TV commercials. In case you missed it, or just forgot, here’s one of the commercials below:
