Taco Bell sparked outrage when they announced they’d purchased the Liberty Bell.

 

Taco Bell sparked outrage when they announced they’d purchased the Liberty Bell.

The company has had some interesting marketing gimmicks over the years, but there’s none as infamous as their ad announcing that they’d purchased the Liberty Bell.

In 1996, a few weeks before April 1st, execs began planning their April Fool’s joke.

The VP of Public Affairs remembered that federal budget issues led to many national landmarks closing during the previous year.

That’s where he got the idea to “sponsor” the Liberty Bell.

Taco Bell’s PR agency placed a full-page ad in six big papers, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, and on April 1st, the papers came out.

The ad stated that they had purchased the national icon to help the national debt, and it would now be called the “Taco Liberty Bell.”