Taco Bell Acts Quickly to Remove Transphobic Radio Ad

January 13, 2010 by Anna Wipfler, GLAAD's Transgender Advocacy Fellow

http://glaadblog.org/2010/01/13/taco-bell-acts-quickly-to-remove-transphobic-radio-ad/

After receiving several reports from constituents and advocates about a transphobic radio commercial for Taco Bell, GLAAD joined a handful of watchful bloggers in calling on the company to cancel the ad.  This afternoon, Taco Bell agreed to pull the hurtful material from further broadcasts after conversations with our National News team and other concerned advocates, including Autumn Sandeen of Pam's House Blend.

While no audio recording of the commercial has yet been found, BorderHouse blog published the most complete description of its content on January 7th:

While no audio recording of the commercial has yet been found

God, you people suck.  No recording means it didn't happen.  Hearing it and reporting on it, is heresy, and not unmissable in court.  Get a cassette deck for the love of god.

Quote from: tekla on January 13, 2010, 10:34:31 PM
While no audio recording of the commercial has yet been found

God, you people suck.  No recording means it didn't happen.  Hearing it and reporting on it, is heresy, and not unmissable in court.  Get a cassette deck for the love of god.

agreed!

GLAAD contacted Taco Bell's Media Relations staff about the collective outcry over the use of someone's transgender identity as the punch line of a joke (a troubling trend we dealt with most recently in outreach to the Late Show with David Letterman). 

Spokesman for Taco Bell, Rob Poetsch, confirmed that descriptions of the ad by concerned advocates were accurate and quickly began the process of taking the ad off the air. He issued this statement to GLAAD late today.

"We sincerely apologize as the ad was not meant to offend anyone and as soon as it was brought to our attention, we immediately stopped airing it."

- Rod Poetsch, Taco Bell Corp.

"We sincerely apologize as the ad was not meant to offend anyone and as soon as it was brought to our attention, we immediately stopped airing it."

I know for a fact that ad campaigns are not done by some independent entity who just tosses them out on the air, they get approved (because of the money involved) by the top people in the company.  People sat around a table somewhere - no doubt many meetings - and listened to this and said 'yes.'  It's not like it was an accident or anything.

Though I'm still trying to figure out how Taco Bell can sell even one of those things in a state where really good Mexican food is probably less than a block away from most people. I guess it's like New York or Chicago having a Domino's Pizza, I'm sure they do, but for the life of me I can't see anyone in NYC or Chicago choosing that over the local options.

I saw the commercial and am glad they have removed it. 

Takla-  You of course, are right about the quality.  But the key words here are cheap, fast, and convenient.

At least they did the right thing in the end.  But it does not excuse the fact that they were trying to make a joke at our expense to sell Mexican Food. 

I bet they use MSG too!

Kristi

Just heard the ad and noticed the cut the end off, the transphobic part.