Are you ready to go Doritos Locos? Taco Bell introduces the highly anticipated Doritos Locos Tacos in three test markets today, and fans are willing to drive as far as 965 miles to get their hands on one as seen above in launch spot, "Road Trip," which will run during the NBA on TNT and The Jersey Shore on MTV this evening.

Doritos fans, a.k.a. "Doritos-heads" are infamous for their passion and antics such as "Crash the Super Bowl" amateur commercials on Game Day. Doritos Locos Tacos have "Taco Bell on the inside and Doritos on the outside," and the product launch is part of the brand’s 50th anniversary this year.

The co-branded product launch with Doritos includes an augmented reality execution on the side of Taco Bell cups so users can see tweets on their smartphones in real-time, contribute their own tweet, and see the broadcasts on live digital billboards in New York’s Times Square and Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Americans are hate eating McDonald's.

Sales are up. Volume is up. More billions have been served. But Ad Age reports that internal tracking from "people close to the company" show that "McDonald's consistently ranks near the bottom in quality perception when compared with rivals." It seems that, like its food, McDonald's is rotting from the inside.

And it should be no surprise. Quietly, in store isles and book clubs, at churches and school bus stops, Americans are beginning to worry about their food.Continue reading...

Sprinkles, the Los Angeles cupcake bakery, has installed its first ATM to dispense its frosted fare, as Huffington Post food blogger Lucy Blodgett demonstrates above. At $4 a pop (75 cents more than its regular cupcake price), the ATM is slated for New York and the brand's eight other U.S. locations, she hears. Naturally, the cupcake ATM now has its own Twitter feed. The idea expands on the company's Sprinklesmobile that launched in 2009. Also launching this spring: Sprinkles Ice Cream.

No brand wants to be caught on the wrong side of history, shifting consumer tastes or technological obsolescence. (See: Twinkies, BetaMax.)

So Mars, Inc. is bidding to get ahead of where the entire food industry seems to be going by vowing to stop selling chocolate products with more than 250 calories in them by the end of next year. It’s part of the company's ongoing corporate citizenship effort to improve the nutritional value of its products and to sell them in a responsible way.

Mars produces seven of the world’s 20 best-selling chocolate brands, including Snickers, Mars, Dove/Galaxy, M&M's, and non-chocolatey confections including Skittles and Juicy Fruit gum. Now, by deposing king-size chocolate bars, the 540-calorie king-size Snickers bar, for instance, will be a goner after next year. 

As Mars noted on its Facebook page, the calorie-cutting efforts are part of a bigger responsible marketing commitment the company made five years ago to promote nutrition — and stop buying ad time or space if more than one quarter of the audience was estimated to be under 12 years old.Continue reading...

McDonald's franchise owners often are as savvy as brand executives, and perhaps a shade more entrepreneurial. Witness the case of the owner of three McDonald's franchises in suburban Dallas-Ft. Worth, whose better-for-you innovation could ripple throughout the chain.

No, it's not an unauthorized menu item like some smokin'-hot Texas barbecue version of McRib. And it may not be as high-tech as the design concept being piloted by McD's in France. What Jonathan Chan devised is an interactive nutritional kiosk that helps visitors to his restaurant in Richardson, Texas, to understand the nutritional value, or lack thereof, of everything on the menu and even to assist in planning their meals.Continue reading...

Taco Bell is changing its tagline from "Think Outside the Bun" to "Live Más," which is Spanish for "Live More," starting with national advertising rolling out on TNT's NBA All-Star game on Saturday night.

The move is timed to the Doritos Locos Tacos launch on March 8th, which CEO Greg Creed told USA Today will be"the biggest new-product launch Taco Bell has ever had."

Not everyone's convinced by the new slogan, however. "They're trying to suggest a lifestyle aspiration but this seems an overreach for Taco Bell, as is their Cantina Bell menu effort," commented restaurant marketing consultant Denise Lee Yohn to Ad Age.

"A tagline should embrace the DNA of the brand, which for Taco Bell is extraordinary value," she said, adding that the use of "imperative tag lines" seem outdated, and that Taco Bell should use a tagline that communicates the personality, spirit, or values of the brand, such as Chipotle's "food with integrity" stance.

In honor of Presidents Day in the U.S. today, here's a look back at McDonald's 2005 Super Bowl spot, "The Lincoln Fry," which featured a likeness of Abraham Lincoln found in an iconic McDonald's French fry and a viral campaign that included a fake blog.

Seven years later, McDonald's is trying to be Honest Abe with more corporate transparency in a bid to boost its brand perception, including being more open about its treatment of animals, as the cover of Ad Age this week attests. Read our coverage of McDonald's transparency moves below:Continue reading...

Don't look now, PepsiCo and Kraft, but a proven CPG rival is coming after your global snacks business in a big way. Kellogg's just-announced acquisition of the Pringles brand from Procter & Gamble signals the potentially significant elevation of Kellogg's ambitions in snacks.

Kellogg was able to pick up Pringle's from P&G for $2.7 billion, of course, only after Diamond Foods — which owns the Emerald Nut brand — had to back out after an investigation of accounting irregularities with the co-op's walnut growers resulted in the replacement of Diamond's CEO and CFO.

Kellogg executives were openly thrilled at the opportunity to triple their global snacks sales in one move and to become the world's second-largest maker of savory snacks after PepsiCo's Frito-Lay brand.Continue reading...