The Taco Liberty Bell was an April Fool's Day joke played by fast food restaurant chain Taco Bell

Taco Bell

Taco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., which serves American-adapted Mexican food. Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "Value Menu" items...

. On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in seven leading U.S. newspapers announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell

Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell is an iconic symbol of American Independence, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formerly placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House , the bell was commissioned from the London firm of Lester and Pack in 1752, and was cast with the lettering "Proclaim LIBERTY...

 to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell". Thousands of people protested before it was revealed at noon April 1 that the sale was a hoax

Hoax

A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...

.
White House Press Secretary

White House Press Secretary

The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the government administration....

 Mike McCurry responded that the federal government was also "selling the Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...

 to Ford Motor Co.

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

 and renaming it the Lincoln-Mercury Memorial."

Influence

The prank was considered a successful advertising gambit by those involved. David Paine, Founder of PainePR, the public relations agency that executed the campaign, called it "the most successful project I've been involved with". The campaign cost was just $300,000, but it generated an estimated $25 million equivalent in free publicity, with a sales increase exceeding $1 million for the first two days in April. Paine, however, feels that the climate today is much more cautious and a comparable prank is not possible. The origin is credited to the mother of then-CEO John Martin.

The stunt has also been listed as one of the top hoaxes or marketing stunts over the years. Entrepreneur Magazine

Entrepreneur Magazine

Entrepreneur is a publication that carries news stories about entrepreneurialism, small business management, and business opportunities. It is published by Entrepreneur Media Inc., headquartered in Irvine, California....

includes it among its "Top 10 Successful Marketing Stunts". The Museum of Hoaxes

Museum of Hoaxes

The Museum of Hoaxes is a website created by Alex Boese in 1997 in San Diego, California as a resource for reporting and discussing hoaxes and urban legends, both past and present....

 ranks it as #4 on its list of the "Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time".

According to marketing author Thomas L. Harris, the stunt worked because "in today's world ... almost everything is corporate-sponsored", making the announcement believable even for "a national historic monument." The company coined the term "publitisement" to describe its stunt, "breaking through advertising clutter to achieve massive awareness" for its then-new "Nothing Ordinary About It" ad campaign. From the other side, activist Paul Rogat Loeb

Paul Rogat Loeb

Paul Rogat Loeb is an American social and political activist.Loeb was born in 1952 in Berkeley, California. He graduated from Stanford University and subsequently attended New York's New School for Social Research and worked actively to end the Vietnam War...

lamented that the hoax "felt too real for comfort" in an era "when every value, ideal, and public symbol has a profit-seeking sponsor."

External links

• PainePR was the PR agency responsible for the campaign
• Liberty Bell Museum