Taco Bell Contest for User Generated Ad is Sure to Bite Them

Gizmoz has launched a contest for Taco Bell seeking user generated ads that will have a chance be shown on the TV broadcast of the 2007 M.T.V Video Music Awards.

Gizmoz’ software lets you make an avatar from a photo. How many people do you think will try to make avatars from pictures of rats?

And what will Taco Bell do? Refuse to show those? How long til they start showing up in YouTube, where the best ones are sure to go viral? Dear Taco Bell: remember Chevy Tahoe's ad campaign?

Back in February, rats the size of the Taco Bell Chihuahua starred in a widely circulated video. Sure Taco Bell will keep advertising and promoting themselves. They have to, in order to survive.

But before they open themselves to Internet scrutiny and user generated content, they need to tell us how they made sure that rat problem was fixed, and what steps they’ve taken to raise their cleanliness standards in franchise stores.

Remember the Chevy Tahoe contest for user generated ads? The commercials people made were far from complimentary to Chevy and you can bet there’ll be more parodies in the ads for Taco Bell, and more rat avatars on YouTube than Taco Bell can shake a rat trap at.

Posted by B.L. Ochman

Why do major corporations hire expensive ad agencies and then let themselves get talked into user generated ad contests. Sure, it's a noble concept - let the user tell the story. But too many are more interested in telling their story at your expense.

You might get one or two interesting concepts that are of passable quality so you can use them...but there are too many unemployed creative directors and other lonely people sitting at home waiting for the chance to do something wild and stupid in order to get their 15 minutes.

As for me, I can't wait to view the carnage. Desea vivo la rata en el taco bell!

Patrick - there are many examples of user generated advertising that is quite wonderful - Firefox got absolutely great ads from users, and Apple fans are always making love songs about the iPod and iPhone.

The point I'm trying to make is that user generated content will only work when people already love your brand and want to share their feelings about it. It can be cute, clever, endearing, and often, better than what a clueless agency will come up with.

It's not user generated advertising that's the problem. In this case, Taco Bell hasn't said how they've fixed the umm, cleanliness, problem. So to run a contest as if everything was fine is just foolhardy. And they'll soon see that!

I question why the agency would get involved in this. Sometimes, walking away from a client who won't listen to reason is the better business plan.