Taco Bell, the quick-service restaurant chain based in Irvine, has launched a new advertising campaign with celebrity Paris Hilton to promote the return of spicy-hot “Volcano” menu items, including the Volcano Taco and Double-beef Volcano burrito and Lava Sauce. The Volcano menu items were discontinued in 2013.
The Mexican food chain’s partnership with Hilton, known as the queen of heat, is based on her popularizing the “That’s Hot” catchphrase in the mid-2000s.
The ad campaign, launched in late June, includes visibility on TikTok and other social media platforms, along with the brand’s first-ever, advice hot line at 1-844-THTS-HOT that features six pre-recorded messages with Hilton’s voice.
A Taco Bell spokesperson told Times of San Diego the campaign also includes a 30-second TV commercial that has begun airing nationally. The commercial will run for a limited time while the Volcano menu items are available, the spokesperson said.
The spot features Hilton dressed in purple talking on a red phone. She says, “Need something spicy? You’ve reached the Volcano Menu Hotline. This is Paris, expert on what’s hot. How may I turn-up the heat for you today?”
A Taco Bell statement said, “To bring back a trio of options so hot and so Y2K, Taco Bell has called on no other than Paris Hilton to do the honors. Fans will now have the chance to get advice straight from the source of what’s hot and what’s not. Need a little life coaching? Covered. Still wondering if bangs are a good idea? She’ll tell you.”
Taco Bell said the return of Volcano menu items has been fueled through online petitions, social media pleas and various at-home attempts to recreate Lava Sauce using a spicy blend of cheese and fiery red jalapeno peppers.
“We’re always listening to our fans, and the extensive passion and needs of the Volcano fanbase could no longer go unmet,” said Taylor Montgomery, U.S. chief marketing officer. “Taco Bell is always looking to deliver on the surprise factor for fans and build on our reputation of choosing authentic partnerships with those who are already mega-fans. So, to bring the heat for this major campaign, we called on none other than Paris Hilton. Always in-the-know of what’s hot, Paris will help bring back these beloved items of the 2000s that never go out of style.”
The company declined to disclose to Times of San Diego a dollar amount for total campaign expenditures.
Taco Bell Corp., founded by Glen Bell in 1962 in Downey, today operates 7,216 restaurants in all 50 states, and a combined total of 7,806 restaurants both domestically and internationally.
Disney Sells Last AM Station to Calvary Chapel for $5 Million
Religious broadcaster Calvary Chapel Church of Costa Mesa, which operates San Diego radio station KSDW 88.9-FM and KWVE 107.9-FM K-Wave in San Clemente, has purchased the Los Angeles-based KRDC 1110-AM for $5 million. As part of the deal, the church also will receive ownership of a low-power FM translator, 99.1-FM airing in Pasadena, according to news reports.
The sale of the 50,000-watt KRDC marks the end of over-the-air radio station ownership in the U.S. for The Walt Disney Company.
Inside Radio, an industry trade publications, reported that Disney, “an industry powerhouse for decades, is leaving the business as quiet as a mouse.” At its peak, Disney reportedly owned more than 40 AM and FM broadcast stations, providing kid-friendly tunes and news broadcasts through the Radio Disney format.
KRDC served as the Radio Disney flagship station from 2003 to 2017, followed by the Radio Disney Country format until April 2021. Then, the two kid-targeted networks ceased operations and Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN, returned the station to a sports format, carrying the ESPN Radio sports talk station as a simulcast of KSPN 710-AM. Today, Radio Disney is available online.
It was no secret that Disney was shopping KRDC. Three years ago, the media giant said the station was for sale because it wanted to focus on businesses other than audio. The KRDC sale comes at a time when Disney is reorienting its media and entertainment business around its core, direct-to-consumer streaming television services, including Disney Plus and Hulu.
When Disney purchased the station in 1998 to become the flagship for Disney Radio as KDIS, it was valued at a reported $65 million.
In the 1960s through 1980s, 1110-AM was known as Top 40 KRLA. In 1964, KRLA was the first station in Southern California to play The Beatles. In the 1990s, the format switched to R&B Oldies. Some of the station’s most legendary personalities include Wink Martindale, Dick Biondi, Emperor Bob Hudson, Casey Kasem, Art Laboe and Shadoe Stevens.
San Diego Zoo Names Direct Response Agency of Record
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, the world’s largest zoological membership group, has selected Moore as its direct response agency of record.
Moore, a leading constituent experience management company based in Maryland, said in a statement it will manage all aspects of direct response programming and integration across channels for the Alliance through a strategic omni-channel approach to include list brokerage and cultivation, media buying, data processing, mail production and distribution and marketing to develop and execute plans to maximize revenue and member and donor acquisition through direct response.
“Moore is the ideal partner to help us widen our national direct response donor and membership base through new technology and data,” said Jeff Spitko, director of membership and direct response for San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “Thanks to their targeted prospecting and advanced behavioral tools, we will be able to reach the right audiences who want to engage and support our global conservation efforts.”
“Supporting such important global conservation efforts is deeply rewarding,” said Steve Harrison, president of Creative Development Research, a division of Moore. “We are honored to be entrusted with executing the Alliance’s incredibly complex and robust membership program with a high degree of quality and accuracy, while protecting the brand and the current revenue stream.”
Moore, operating for the past 40 years, is one of the largest marketing, data and fundraising companies in North America serving the nonprofit industry with clients across education, association, political and commercial sectors.
Supreme Court Decides on Graphic Artist’s Free Speech Case
A graphic artist and website designer last week won her free speech and religious liberty case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a decision that has massive implications for the creative advertising and marketing industries, the justices ruled 6-3 in favor of Lorie Smith of Colorado, who owns Creative 303 and had declined to design a wedding website for a same-sex couple.
Last year, the Supreme Court agreed to review the case, following earlier rulings against Smith by a district and circuit court before she petitioned the Supreme Court.
Attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious freedom advocacy group representing Smith, argued that a ruling against her would force artists, from painters and photographers to writers and musicians, to do work that are against their beliefs and would infringe on their constitutional rights.
News reports said Smith said she will design custom websites for anyone, including those who identify as LGBT, as long as their message does not conflict with her religious views. She declines to promote violence or encourage sexual immorality or abortion. When clients want such messages expressed, Smith refers them to other designers.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the 6-3 majority in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, “The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands.”
Gorsuch also wrote, “The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees. Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience.”
Gorsuch went on to explain that one of “our most cherished liberties” is the ability to think for ourselves.
“But, as this Court has long held, the opportunity to think for ourselves and to express those thoughts freely is among our most cherished liberties and part of what keeps our Republic strong,” he wrote. “Of course, abiding the Constitution’s commitment to the freedom of speech means all of us will encounter ideas we consider ‘unattractive.’”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the dissent, argued that the ruling was part of a broader pattern to undermine minority rights. She wrote, “Around the country, there has been a backlash to the movement for liberty and equality for gender and sexual minorities. New forms of inclusion have been met with reactionary exclusion.”
In his closing remarks, Gorsuch responded to the dissent. He wrote, “It is difficult to read the dissent and conclude we are looking at the same case. Much of it focuses on the evolution of public accommodations laws, and the strides gay Americans have made towards securing equal justice.
“And, no doubt, there is much to applaud here. But none of this answers the question we face today: Can a State force someone who provides her own expressive services to abandon her conscience and speak its preferred message instead?”
“When the dissent finally gets around to that question — more than halfway into its opinion—it reimagines the facts of this case from top to bottom,” Gorsuch wrote.
The Biden administration sided with Colorado in an amicus brief. President Joe Biden called the decision “disappointing.”
For two decades, the court has expanded the rights of LGBTQ people, most notably giving same-sex couples the right to marry in 2015 and announcing five years later that a landmark civil rights law also protects gay, lesbian, and transgender people from employment discrimination. That civil rights law decision was also written by Gorsuch.
Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.
