Large brands with an Internet presence often branch out into separate websites—with different URLs, not just a link on a sidebar—that communicate specific messages. For instance, Pepsi has, in addition to its US and global sites, separate sites for several of its individual colas and sponsorships, from Pepsi Street Motion (for enthusiasts of both cola and custom cars) to the Pepsi Tour, a golf tournament.

A recent branding message has nothing to do with the food, per se, but is more in line with a concept championed by Starbucks. Where the java giant pushes the idea of the “third place,” Taco Bell champions the “fourth meal.” In other words, if you’re still hungry after 8p.m.—or 10p.m., or midnight—then you’re not a glutton, you’re simply in need of something to eat between dinner and breakfast that’s more than a snack. (Call it “dreakfast” or “binner,” if you want.)

Which brings us to the fourthmeal.com. Looking as if it were designed by and for people who crave a Meximelt during the witching hour, the site transports you—and by “you” I mean an avatar—to an after-hours city scene where the moon is full, crime is nonexistent, and time-wasting activities are the rule.

Your avatar can wander around the screen—I mean “street”—with other web visitors. If you’re registered, you can interact with them: add them to your buddy list or challenge them to Ro Sham Bell, an online rock-paper-scissors game. Solo activities include a virtual bull riding competition and the Food Square, a Taco Bell take on the classic Simon memory game.

If you have even more time on your hands, you can view the Fourth Meal television ads, customize your avatar, or visit the Combinator, which suggests a drink combination for your food order. For my typical meal—a Meximelt and a Mexican Pizza—I’m supposed to order “The Howler,” which is equal parts Diet Pepsi and Mountain Dew Code Red. I’m pretty sure that not only will the drive-thru order-taker not know what The Howler is, but asking him or her to orchestrate that combo would risk the wrath of a convoy of hungry drivers. (And I don’t care what time it is or what munchies-inducing substance I’ve taken beforehand, I wouldn’t touch that drink unless I was wearing a lab coat.)

Then again, if websites had tongues and cheeks, thefourthmeal.com would have its former planted firmly in its latter. (Some Combinator suggestions require just one percent of Diet Pepsi, for example.) The site is likely a waste of time and bandwidth for those who would never consider eating any combination of refried beans, meat, and cheese while most people are sleeping. But for the rest of us, the games are as addictive as that midnight Meximelt. And it hammers home the concept of the fourth meal—not exactly the healthiest culinary concept since sliced whole-wheat bread—with a site that’s cool and breezy even if it’s fleeting and, in the greater scheme of things, insubstantial.

With that in mind—perhaps because the site is so well designed—I wonder whether we’d have a better world if the Taco Bell web team dedicated its efforts to something of greater substance, like the Red Cross or American Cancer Society or Amnesty International sites.

Or, maybe, that’s just the hot sauce talking.