Taco Bell buys the Liberty Bell

APR 01 1996

Taco Bell took full-page advertisements in six major American newspapers announcing it had purchased the Liberty Bell to help reduce the national debt, and would rename it the Taco Liberty Bell. Thousands of people telephoned the company and the National Park Service before the joke was admitted at noon. White House press secretary Mike McCurry played along, saying the Lincoln Memorial had been sold to Ford and would become the Lincoln-Mercury Memorial. The stunt cost about USD 300,000 and generated an estimated USD 25 million in coverage, with sales up more than a million dollars over two days.