October 31, 2007
No Tacos For The Red Cross
Nearly 10,000 people signed an online petition aimed at getting fast-food giant Taco Bell to donate money to help the American Red Cross provides services to those displaced by the California wildfires.
The online effort was tied to a nationwide promotion Tuesday in which Taco Bell gave away free tacos to customers nationwide for three hours. The promotion was tied to the recently concluded World Series.
Organizers had hoped that Taco Bell would donate money to the Red Cross that approximated the value of a free taco for every person who signed the petition.
Taco Bell, however, isn’t playing along.
The fast-food company sent Mike Esordi, organizer of the promotion, a note saying that it appreciated his efforts but that it is not planning to make a donation.
Still, Mr. Escordi says he was encouraged by the response — especially since the effort was organized so quickly.
“This was a tremendous effort on so many levels and we could not have been any more pleased at the response we got to a campaign costing nothing more than the $10 or so to buy the URL,” Mr. Esordi said. “Watching the numbers increase
exponentially throughout the day provided a bit of renewed faith in human nature.”
Mr. Esordi also made a short YouTube video to promote the effort:
What can charity leaders learn from this effort? Click on the comments link below this post to share your thoughts.
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What lesson can be learned from this? That too many in the nonprofit sector are gullible.
This was a clever PR ploy to get millions of dollars in free publicity, with no expectation that more than a few people would claim their free taco.
If it was a legitimate, good-faith offer, it wouldn’t have been limited to 2-5 PM on a Tuesday, when no one is likely to want a taco, or to leave their workplace to get a free 77-cent food item that they’ll have to wash down with a $1.49 6-ounce Coke.
— Jeff Steele Nov 1, 03:48 PM #