Taco Bell Buys the Liberty Bell

On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell placed full-page ads in seven major US newspapers — the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times — announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell from the federal government as part of a corporate sponsorship program to help reduce the national debt. It would henceforth be called 'the Taco Liberty Bell.' The ad was written in the language of a sincere corporate press release. It quoted a real Taco Bell executive. There was no asterisk, no wink, no legal disclaimer. The Associated Press picked up the story and ran it straight for two hours before a reporter called Taco Bell's PR line to confirm. The National Park Service switchboard was overwhelmed with calls from genuinely outraged Americans. Congressional offices issued statements. The White House press secretary addressed it from the podium at a daily briefing. At noon Eastern, Taco Bell announced the joke — and simultaneously donated $50,000 to Liberty Bell preservation.

The stunt worked because the medium did all the credibility work. National newspaper full-page ads don't carry jokes. By choosing the most authoritative possible format for the most outrageous possible claim, Taco Bell made the absurdity land hard enough to go national. The reveal was the second ad: $25M in free media from news coverage of the joke being a joke.

25 million Americans heard about it within 24 hours — more than any Taco Bell campaign in history. An estimated $25M in free media. The White House press secretary addressed it. Widely cited as the first major corporate April Fools' stunt and the template for every brand doing April Fools' Day since.