Taco Liberty Bell
The advertisement as it appeared in the April 1, 1996 edition of The New York Times.
The Taco Liberty Bell was an April Fool’s Day joke played by fast food restaurant chain Taco Bell. The ad was created by Jon Parkinson and Harvey Hoffenberg who worked at Bozell, the Taco Bell advertising agency at the time. The ad went on to win several industry awards. On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in seven leading U.S. newspapers announcing that the company had purchased the Liberty Bell to “reduce the country’s debt” and renamed it the “Taco Liberty Bell”. Thousands of people had called Taco Bell headquarters and the National Park Service before it was revealed at noon on April 1 that the story was a hoax. White Hous… Continue Reading (2 minute read)