DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqBWnjloU0I

 

This recent ad for Taco Bell breakfast was a bold and successful move for the fast-food restaurant. Giving the new breakfast items the seal of approval from Ronald McDonald himself is a funny, tasteful dig at Taco Bell’s biggest breakfast competitor. This ad effortlessly gives Taco Bell just the right kind of attention in an appropriate context. 

 

The introduction of Taco Bell breakfast was highly anticipated by America’s youth. Taco Bell advertises mostly to teens and young adults, focusing heavily on their reputation as a late night spot, home of the “Fourth Meal,” a brand borne of social media. However, young people are already loyal to Taco Bell, okay with change and open to the unusual- for example, a waffle taco with scrambled eggs and sausage in the middle. This advertisement, where men named Ronald McDonald all over America hail, “I’m Ronald McDonald, and I love Taco Bell’s New Breakfast!” seems to be one of their first ads that reaches out to a new demographic, by practically screaming, “Don’t rule us out for being different!”

 

As it should. Early morning money is in the pockets of middle aged to older men, who are commuting to work every morning with an Egg McMuffin in their passenger seat. Taco Bell recognized that they needed a shift in focus. The latent success of this commercial lies not in the irony that someone named Ronald McDonald loves a breakfast taco, it’s who each Ronald McDonald is that’s selling the product here. It’s no coincidence that the men in this commercial all look like average Joe’s, or somebody’s dad. The demographic represented in this commercial would ordinarily drive past Taco Bell on their way to work in the morning, probably without even knowing they have a breakfast menu. McDonald’s has worked hard to establish themselves as a household name, a familiar brand that makes stopping through the drive thru for your morning breakfast seem more like part of your routine rather than a choice you can make every morning. This aim of this commercial is to pull these middle aged men away from McDonald’s, but the challenge lies in selling a taco over a traditional McMuffin.

 

By saying, “I’m Ronald McDonald, and I love Taco Bell’s New Breakfast,” this commercial just does that, with grace, humor and style, to affirm once and for all that there’s a new guy in town for breakfast- and his name’s not Ronald McDonald.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.