Taco Bell Corp. is an American multinational chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, including tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, novelty, and speciality items, and a variety of "value menu" items. As of 2023, Taco Bell serves over two billion customers each year, at 8,212 restaurants, more than 94 percent of which are owned and operated by independent franchisees and licensees.
Doritos is an American brand of flavored tortilla chips produced by Frito-Lay, a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. The concept for Doritos originated at Disneyland at a restaurant managed by Frito-Lay.
Joey Skaggs is an American multi-media artist, social activist, cultural satirist, media critic, and educator known for addressing social issues through unconventional art forms. Although classically trained in painting and sculpture, Skaggs transitioned to public performance art in 1966. He began to use the spectacle of public performance, frequently with humor and satire, to provoke the media to report on the work. This work, which developed into his own form of media activism, blends fine art, theatrical performance, guerrilla theater, and techniques from advertising and public relations. It frequently employs aliases. Skaggs’ media activism is also characterized by its independence from formal sponsorship or commercial backing. Skaggs' works challenge power structures and advocate for social change. According to his website, Skaggs aims to inspire audiences to think critically, question authority, exercise media literacy, and explore diverse sources of information. He is recognized as one of the originators of culture jamming.
In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilized by advertisers and celebrities, many of whom are athletes and politicians. Stunts employing humour and pranks have been regularly used by protest movements to promote their ideas and campaigns as well as challenge opponents.
The spaghetti-tree hoax was a three-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools' Day 1957 by the BBC current-affairs programme Panorama, purportedly showing a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from a "spaghetti tree". At the time of the report's broadcast, spaghetti was relatively unknown in the United Kingdom, and a number of viewers contacted the BBC afterwards for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees. Decades later, CNN called this broadcast "the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled".
The dihydrogen monoxide parody is a parody that involves referring to water by its unfamiliar chemical systematic name "dihydrogen monoxide" (DHMO, or the chemical formula H2O) and describing some properties of water in a particularly concerning manner — such as the ability to accelerate corrosion (rust) and cause suffocation (drowning) — for the purpose of encouraging alarmism among the audience to often incite a moral panic calling for water to be banned, regulated strictly or labeled as a hazardous chemical. The parody has also involved other uncommon chemical nomenclatures for water such as "hydrogen hydroxide", "dihydrogen oxide" and "hydric acid", used in many prank shows to scare people into thinking it as a lethal or corrosive substance.
Gidget, nicknamed the "Taco Bell Chihuahua", was an advertising figure and mascot for Taco Bell from September 1997 to July 2000. The character she played was developed by TBWA. The Chihuahua is a breed commonly associated with Mexico.
Butterfinger is a candy bar manufactured by the Ferrara Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrero. It consists of a layered crisp peanut butter core covered in a "chocolatey" coating. It was invented by Otto Schnering of the Curtiss Candy Company in 1923. A popularity contest chose the name.
Mount Edgecumbe is located at the southern end of Kruzof Island, Alaska, about 15 miles (24 km) west of Sitka. The dormant volcano is about 9.9 miles (16 km) east of the Queen Charlotte Fault that separates the North American and Pacific Plates, and is the highest point in the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, an area of about 100 square miles (260 km2) on Kruzof Island that also includes Crater Ridge and Shell Mountain.
TBWA Worldwide is an international advertising agency whose main headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
A practical joke or prank is a trick played on people, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion, or discomfort. The perpetrator of a practical joke is called a "practical joker" or "prankster". Other terms for practical jokes include gag, rib, jape, or shenanigan. Some countries in western nations make it tradition to carry out pranks on April Fools' Day and Mischief Night.
Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB) is one of the largest global advertising agency networks. It is owned by Interpublic Group and was merged in 2006 with Draft Worldwide, adopting the name Draftfcb. In 2014 the company rebranded itself as FCB.
On the morning of January 31, 2007, the Boston Police Department and the Boston Fire Department mistakenly identified battery-powered LED placards depicting the Mooninites, characters from the Adult Swim animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), leading to a massive panic. Placed throughout Boston, Massachusetts, and the surrounding cities of Cambridge and Somerville by Peter "Zebbler" Berdovsky and Sean Stevens, these devices were part of a nationwide guerrilla marketing advertising campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters.
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved with these pranks, which may be revealed as such the following day. The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks upon one's neighbour has been relatively common in the world historically.
A media prank is a type of media event, perpetrated by staged speeches, activities, or press releases, designed to trick legitimate journalists into publishing erroneous or misleading articles. The term may also refer to such stories if planted by fake journalists, as well as the false story thereby published. A media prank is a form of culture jamming generally done as performance art or a practical joke for purposes of a humorous critique of mass media.
The Burger wars are a series of off-and-on comparative advertising campaigns consisting of mutually-targeted advertisements that highlight the intense competition between hamburger fast food chains McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and others in the United States. The term first came into use during the late 1970s due to an attempt by Burger King to generate increased market and mind-share by attacking the size of bigger rival McDonald's hamburgers.
