Taco Bell In-Game Promotion Gives Baseball Fans Indigestion

Depending on your point of view, the Taco Bell “Steal A Base, Steal A Taco” promotion during Game 2 of the World Series was either genius marketing or a dumb idea that backfired on the fast food chain.

If you’re not a sports fan you might have missed it, but there’s been plenty of discussion about it online. Taco Bell has been gobbling up tons of publicity for years around its Everyone in America Gets a Free Taco promotion for such things as the space station Mir debris hitting the company’s floating logo target in the South Pacific in 2001 or for the astronomical possibility of a Barry Bonds’ home run landing on its floating banner in McCovey Cove during the 2002 World Series. The company has traditionally received overwhelming publicity for little cost and virtually no risk to its corporate insurance policy.

This time, however, the company with the help of Fox Sports moved the promotion inside the dugout of the Boston Red Sox during a one-run game in the middle of this year’s Fall Classic. The offer for a free taco to everyone in the country kicked in when Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox stole a base. Fox announcers immediately cut to a previously taped conversation between Ellsbury and teammate Royce Clayton discussing the promotion the day before and followed with a live in-stands interview with Taco Bell COO Rob Savage. It was like viewers were watching a Taco Bell commercial and were interrupted by a baseball game.

While I’m sure the marketing pros at Taco Bell are counting the news clips and PR hits and watching the traffic surge to their Web site as indicators of great visibility and success, I suggest they dig a little deeper into consumer sentiment about their “big idea.” Fans on sports talk shows in many markets have blasted the company for the in-game interruption and it’s easy to see why consumers are starting to take out their anger on brands that cross the fine line from a clever idea to intrusion marketing.

If I were Taco Bell I’d be surveying people around the country about what they really thought about the promotion because you sure can’t gauge success by handing out a few thousand free tacos. Oh, and by the way, you can claim your free taco tomorrow at about the same time the Red Sox stage their victory celebration here in Boston.

Mike Spataro