Posted on 08/27/2003 8:06:24 AM PDT by mabelkitty
California Democratic Party leaders yesterday blasted the Taco Bell restaurant chain for a sales promotion that counts sales of different menu items as votes in a mock California recall election.
Last week the Mexican-style fast food chain launched the campaign, urging Californians to “put their vote where their mouth is.” Taco Bell restaurants statewide are tallying each purchase of a crunchy beef taco as a “vote” for Republican challenger Arnold Schwarzenegger and each purchase of a chicken soft taco as a “vote” for not recalling Gov. Gray Davis. In the first week of the unofficial poll, “votes” for any of the remaining 134 candidates could be cast by buying a Grilled Stuft Burrito.
Taco Bell announced the first installment of its Taco Poll results yesterday, in which 54 percent of the votes went to Schwarzenegger and his crunchy beef taco, and just three percent of the votes went to Davis and his chicken soft taco. All other candidates received 43 percent of votes through purchases of the chain’s Grilled Stuft Burrito.
Unhappy with the mock poll results, the chairman of the California Democratic Party, former state Sen. Art Torres said yesterday that “Taco Bell should stick to making tacos, not rigging elections.”
In a press statement released yesterday, Torres said beef tacos always outsell chicken tacos, which cost twice as much at the restaurant chain. In Sacramento, Torres said, Taco Bell sells beef tacos for 74 cents and chicken tacos for $1.50.
Bob Mulholland, campaign advisor for the California Democratic Party, says the Taco Poll is also “an investment scam to benefit Schwarzenegger.” He pointed to the actor’s ownership of about $1 million of stock in Pepsico Inc. The company is the former owner of Taco Bell and is still its exclusive soft drink supplier, Mulholland says.
Meanwhile, Taco Bell announced yesterday that after an overwhelming response from consumers to include Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante in the Taco Poll, patrons can now “vote” for Bustamante by purchasing a Chalupa.
Customers can “vote” as often as they like at more than 1,000 California Taco Bell restaurants until the day before the Oct. 7 special recall election. The results are tallied and released every Tuesday, and can be viewed at www.tacobell.com.
Just a little fart.
SO9
But they look a little silly in those outfits.
Is this a sneaky way around campaign finance laws? What's next, Ben & Jerry's doing a Dean vs Bush vote, with Bush being represented by maggots & dirt ice cream, while Dean gets Cherry Garcia?
I am not enamoured of campaign finance. However, if it is in place, everybody should play by the rules. If it is true that Arnold is a major investor in Pepsi, and Pepsi is both the former owner, and the soft drink distributor for the chain, and they rigged the "poll" so he would win, it does bring up an issue.
Yes, this poll is a joke. However, since they are promoting this with an ad campaign, and releasing figures, I would believe that they are morally obliged to give us percentages of items sold before the announcement. Otherwise, they are illegally giving massive campaign contributions to Ah-Nold.
Well they do dress funny...
Welcome to FreeRepublic. You can't go to Taco Crime? (Or do they not have soft chicken Tacos?)
If they sell 1,000,000 beef tacos a month, and 500,000 chicken soft tacos... and this month they sell 1,200,000 beef, and 600,000 soft tacos, does this mean, that the candidates are running even, or does it mean that Ah-nold has a 2-1 lead?
Why in the heck do I even care. This is the silliest thing in the world. Taco bell should have picked 3 same priced, similar selling sides if they were going to be sporting about this. Great promotion for them though.
Yes. If addressed at all, it should have been to note those basic reasons why the "poll" was silly. The idea of turning it into a conspiracy trail should make them look like nuts.
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