Taco Bell's Pina Colada Frutista Freeze ad has been named the top scoring ad in the restaurant category by advertising analytics firm Ace Metrix.
Ace Metrix' "Top Scoring Television Advertisements for 2009" ranks television ads from throughout 2009 with the best creative effectiveness as measured by Ace Score. An ad for Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids food storage containers was the 2009 overall highest scoring ad. The Rubbermaid ad also was the highest scoring ad in the consumer products category.
The Taco Bell ad features a montage of office workers and commuters finding relief from workday and traffic stress as they drink the Frutista Freeze and parody lines from "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)." The tagline suggests the drink offers a break-acation, "part break, part vacation." (See video below.)
Ace Metrix is an on-demand service that delivers actionable advertising analytics including competitive insights. The Ace Score is a patent-pending measurement of creative effectiveness based on measures of persuasion and watchability, and delivered by the on-demand Ace Metrix service. The persuasion rating is based on the interactivity of six data elements — desire, relevance, likeability, attention, information and change — automatically captured and analyzed for each ad. Watchability measures the engagement that a person has with the ad.
Other quick-service brands with top scoring advertisements in the restaurant category include Hardees, Subway, Sonic and Wendy's, according to Nation's Restaurant News.
Criticism for new Taco Bell campaign
In spite of it Frutista Freeze ad accolades, Taco Bell is not winning with consumers with its latest ad campaign. The brand's new Drive-Thru Diet is drawing scathing criticism from bloggers and posts on YouTube. Bloggers question the ads' believability, especially in contrast to the chain's other campaign for the new Beefy 5-Layer Burrito. According to Advertising Age, the brand's buzz has turned negative in the weeks since the Drive-Thru Diet's debut in late December.
From Advertising Age:
According to Zeta Buzz, which mines blogs, message boards and social media postings to measure buzz about a subject, Taco Bell's buzz rating has dropped six points after launching the diet. While volume of posts increased 44%, the tone has become more negative.Prior to launch, posts were 73% positive, putting it ahead of beloved chains like Subway, Wendy's and Domino's. Words associated with the brand online were "love," "delicious," and "favorite." Postings are now 67% positive, putting Taco Bell behind White Castle, Blimpie and Arby's, which rank among the category's lower tier. Now three of the words most closely associated with Taco Bell and its campaign have been "fat," "stop," and "joke."
Taco Bell president Greg Creed said during Yum! Brands' annual investor update that the Drive-Thru campaign is intended to improve the chain's perception as a healthful option. The company's research shows consumers rate the chain the lowest among healthful options.
