Taco Bell ad: Gordita whips the Whopper

Nation's Restaurant News, July 20, 1998 by Gregg Cebrzynski

The campaign, featuring Taco Bell's Chihuahua and the tag, "Hasta La Vista, Whopper," broke with one-time full-page ads in USA Today and the Los Angeles Times and continues with three new TV spots from TBWA Chiat/Day.

"Gorditas will be the main emphasis through the end of sun mer," spokeswoman Laurie Gannon said. "We want nontriers to try them."

In a nationwide taste test among 500 consumers, men preferred the Gordita Supreme to the Whopper by a margin of 58.4 percent to 41.6 percent, according to Taco Bell. Research International USA of New York conducted the test for the chain.

Taco Bell said 160 million Gorditas have been sold since their introduction in April, making the product the most successful new launch in the chain's history.

Burger King, also a user of taste tests, declined to comment on the campaign.

The print ads showed the Chihuahua standing over a Burger King crown, the tag line printed underneath and below it: "In a nationwide taste test against the Whopper, guys liked Gorditas best. It seems people would rather have it our way.

In the first TV ad, a 15second spot, the Chihuahua carries the Burger King crown in its mouth, drops it and says, "Hasta La Vista, Whopper."

A second spot runs 30 seconds and describes the taste-test results. The third spot, also 30 seconds, shows the dog leading a crowd of taco patriots and persuading a burger eater to join the "Gordita revolution."

All three spots will air in prime time.

Although Burger King is singled out in the campaign, Taco Bell is "not directly trying to pull away" its customers, Gannon said. "We're not trying to say, 'Don't eat burgers.'"

Burger King was chosen for the taste test because "the Whopper is coming up as the product to beat" during focus groups and other marketing research, she said.

Vada Hill, Taco Bell's chief marketing officer, said in a statement that the chain considers the Gordita the best-tasting new product in the industry, and "We decided to measure our gold standard against the best in the fast-food business, the Whopper."

Taco Bell offers three versions of the Gordita - Fiesta, Supreme and Santa Fe - each containing either beef, chicken or steak and different toppings wrapped inside a thick piece of flatbread.

Since the Gordita's introduction at least two other chains have rolled out similar products. El Polio Loco sells a Crazy Chicken Sandwich, and Del Taco offers Big Fat Tacos. Both chains have far fewer units than Taco Bell's 5,000 restaurants.

U.S. systemwide sales for Taco Bell, a division of Tricon Global Restaurants, were $4.65 billion for the fiscal year ending in December 1997, an increase of 1.64 percent over the previous-year volume, according to the Nation's Restaurant News Top 100 rankings of restaurant chains.

Whether the taste-test campaign can ignite a significant sales increase is uncertain, according to marketing strategist Al Ries.

"Anytime as an advertiser you compare yourself with the competition, the customer is very suspicious," he said. "A lot of people are quick to discount the results of any taste test."

Credibility is strained in this case, Ries added, because two similar products are not being compared. Yet he does not totally discount Taco Bell's effort to lure new customers.

"I think they're onto something," he said. "I think there are a lot of people out there who prefer the taste of Mexican food to hamburger. It's kind of like the old V-8 commercials. 'Oh, I should have had a V-8. Now maybe it's, 'Oh, I could have had Mexican."'

Burger King itself is no stranger to taste tests. An ad campaign with the tag "The taste that beat McDonald's fries," supporting the launch of its new french fries late last year, was based on taste tests showing consumers preferred the fries over McDonald's by a 57-to-35-percent margin.

McDonald's countered that claim, contending that sales figures and its own taste tests showed its fries were more popular.

Gannon said she wasn't sure how Burger King would react to Taco Bell's new campaign but speculated that "they'll look at it as a form of flattery. We're really kind of putting their Whopper on a pedestal."

A taste test by Papa John's Pizza led to a battle with Pizza Hut last spring. Papa John's ran a TV spot claiming it had "better ingredients, better taste." Pizza Hut complained to the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which said Papa John's should change its ad to note that the taste test did not include pan pizza.

Both chains ultimately traded shots at each other in full-page ads.