From Taco Bell’s Facebook page:
Taco Supreme Cake
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Category Archives: Taco Bell
Presenting: The world’s nicest Taco Bell
From Jaunted.com. First, the design:
And the location:
This Taco Bell is in Pacifica, Calif. It has a walk-up window for surfers and a patio overlooking the beach. I am considering a pilgrimage.
Taco Bell restaurant mascot fails at dunking
Somehow still awesome even out of context. Via Randy Medina.
There’s just no way these guys are getting the right stuff
I mean, unless they go to a really awesome Taco Bell they’re just asking way too much of their drive-thru attendants. That’s a huge order, for one thing, and they’re not entirely clear with it. At my local Taco Bell — the Worst Taco Bell in the World — they’d probably wind up with a single Volcano Taco and it wouldn’t even have a red shell. Via Nate.
Taco Bell to give away 10 million free tacos
10 million! This is a good day. Via Greg.
Experts squash the Taco Bell beef beef
“There’s nothing on the list that’s unusual.” – Kathryn Kotula, senior investigative food scientist at consultant Investigative Food Sciences, possessor of one of the world’s great titles. Via Josh.
Taco Bell coming out swinging
Like I said, as long as the tacos in question still taste great and don’t instantly kill me, I’m going to keep eating them. Now I know they’ve got oats in them, too. Hey, that’s healthy!
Taco Bell fights back
Wait a minute, this guy gets to be both the president and Chief Concept Officer at Taco Bell? He can have the presidency, but I’m gunning for that Chief Concept Officer job. Hell, I’d like that to me my title anywhere. From here on out I’m introducing myself as the Chief Concept Officer of SNY.tv.
Where’s the beef?
Terrible puns aside, the case Beasley Allen of Montgomery, Ala. brings up is a pretty interesting one, as reported by WTOL in Toledo. Beasley says that what Taco Bells calls “ground beef” does not meet the USDA’s definition of beef — “flesh of cattle” — and should instead be dubbed “taco meat filling.”
The suit claims that Taco Bell’s meat-like offering is filled with extenders and other non-meat substances listed in the lawsuit like water, “Isolated Oat Product,” wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodrextrin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch and sodium phosphate as well as beef and seasonings. Yum!
As the USDA definition in the lawsuit says, to be called “ground beef,” the product must “consist of chopped fresh and/or frozen beef with or without seasoning and without the addition of beef fat as such, shall not contain more than 30 percent fat, and shall not contain added water, phosphates, binders, or extenders.”
OK, if you’re one of the 20-some people that tipped me off to this story, thanks and I appreciate it. But the shoutout here has to go to our guy Deez, fan of the site but no fan of Taco Bell.
Here’s the thing: Whatever the stuff is that’s inside those “ground beef” tacos tastes good. Yeah, I suppose it’s a little bit gross or weird or at the very least unbecoming to learn that it is allegedly not all meat. But it’s not like I’ve ever gone to Taco Bell thinking, “I’ve come for some healthy food that does not at all contain additives or preservatives or vague chemically sounding elements. I’m not here for the flavor, I’m here for the grass-fed beef.”
I mean it costs 89 cents! That’s practically free! You should be thrilled that you even get a corn tortilla with shredded lettuce and cheese-like product for that price, not to mention all the free packets of sauce-style substance you can handle.
I will go to my grave — yeah, perhaps sooner than later — apologizing for Taco Bell. I can’t imagine any true Taco Bell enthusiast is going to be too broken up about this news. I do wonder, though, how it affects Seasoned Beef’s role in the Super Delicious Ingredient Force.
I am still waiting on my check from Taco Bell
Filmdrunk puts together a video history of product placement in movies. Very entertaining:
I, for one, had no idea Hershey’s paid Spielberg to use Reese’s Pieces. The way I saw it, it’s entirely likely that a kid might use Reese’s Pieces to lure an alien into his house. (Also, did Speak and Spell pay anything?) I suppose since I saw E.T. long after its theatrical release — and after Reese’s Pieces were already popular — I never realized that Reese’s Pieces were relatively new when the movie came out and actually owe some of their popularity to the scene.
The whole thing seems a bit slimy, for sure. But I guess the thing is, we use, discuss, joke about and interact in various ways with consumer goods daily. I figured by now we’d be seeing more of this in television shows, since DVRs allow us to skip all the commercials and everything. I thought the use of Sun Chips as a plot device in an episode of The Office was a harbinger of more obvious product placement to come.
Now that I’m thinking about it I’m considering all the great uses of products in things I like and wondering which were remunerated. Obviously Arrested Development’s beyond meta incorporation of Burger King was genius. Did Abba Zabba pay for placement in Half Baked, or did Dave Chappelle just think Abba Zabba was the comically appropriate candy bar for that scene?
Oh, and for the record, I find most of Adam Sandler’s fast food bits in movies funny. The highlight of Little Nicky was when Sandler’s son-of-the-devil character — after needing to be coached through his first experience chewing and swallowing earthly food — declares, “Popeye’s Chicken is f@#$ing awesome.”
Because he’s right, you know.
Tedquarters 