People Were Outraged When Taco Bell Claimed To Buy This Historic Monument Back In The '90s

A good April Fool's prank is akin to a work of art, representing the perfectly curated storm of humor, choosing the correct target, and achieving the right level of audacity. Taco Bell had plenty of the latter on April 1st, 1996, when it took out full-page ads in several major American publications. The purpose: to proudly spread the word that the chain had purchased the iconic Liberty Bell and would be renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. What's more, the ad claimed, the company would move it periodically between Philadelphia and Taco Bell's Cali headquarters. 

Almost 30 years ago, the Tex-Mex fast food giant shocked and outraged Americans with this announcement, which the company claimed was done altruistically as a way to combat the rising national debt. Talking heads on morning shows bemoaned the perversion of sacred historical relics, while Taco Bell's customer service number was deluged with angry phone calls. We have to wonder what Dolly Parton, a notable Taco Bell lover, had to say about this!

By the afternoon of April Fool's Day 1996, Taco Bell spilled the (refried) beans: the Liberty Bell acquisition was a big joke, and the company had actually donated $50,000 towards the bell's upkeep. In the longer run, the hoax paid dividends. While Taco Bell shelled out $300,000 for the newspaper ads, it parlayed the Liberty Bell gag into an estimated $25 million worth of advertising and a $600,000 sales increase the following day.

Today, Taco Bell is more likely to court attention with new menu items like its Baja Blast Midnight soda flavor or birthday cake churros in collaboration with Milk Bar. As of this writing, Taco Bell is rocking headlines with its imminent release of a Baja Blast pie, just in time for the holidays. The news raises eyebrows, but perhaps now in a more predictable way.

Who could forget, however, when KFC sent Colonel Sanders rappelling down a 40-story Chicago skyscraper and handing out coupons to window washers? Or Burger King's cologne, FLAME, which bore the odor of eau de hamburger and was actually sold in certain NYC stores? Back to KFC, how about that time that it accidentally gave out too many coupons (by an order of millions) for free two-piece chicken meals and caused actual riots? 

By comparison, the Taco Bell/Liberty Bell stunt seems oddly wholesome. Nobody was hurt, even if some patriots' inflamed egos were temporarily bruised. The fast food world is full of vicious competition, especially now, when customers are seeking value more than ever before. We can't get mad at fast food shenanigans that have relatively low stakes, whether it's Wendy's feisty social media team taking shots at virtually all competitors or Taco Bell fooling incredulous consumers by claiming it bought a piece of American history that was, as far as we can tell, never for sale.