Celebrity endorsement: Taco Bell brand-jacks McDonald’s

Los Angeles – Taco Bell has launched a new breakfast menu, which stands in direct competition with McDonald’s, which has offered a fast food breakfast since 1977. To poke fun at the breakfast rivalry, Taco Bell enlisted advertising agency Deutsch LA to get the ultimate endorsement of the Taco Bell breakfast offer from McDonald’s mascot Ronald McDonald.

In truth, it is not the red-haired, clown-faced Ronald McDonald enjoying the breakfast burrito in the Taco Bell commercial, but a series of real-life Ronald McDonalds – men throughout the country who share a name with the mascot. A disclaimer at the end explains that none of the men are associated with McDonald’s and ‘each were individually selected as paid endorsers of Taco Bell Breakfast, but man, they sure did love it’.

Taco Bell’s amusing ploy is a perfect example of Brand-jacking – stealing something as iconic as the name Ronald McDonald and using it not only to promote its product, but to have a direct dig at its competitor in a friendly, congenial way.