# Taco Liberty Bell

> Taco Bell's 1996 purchase hoax drew protests, a denial and a White House joke.

- Owner: Taco Bell
- Kind: Campaign
- Sector: Food & beverage
- Seed date: 1996-04-01
- Milestone date: 1996-04-01
- Date basis: Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak.
- Spread Score: 27 (Niche, provisional), v1.3
- Mechanics: Controversy, Platform jump, Political adoption, Newsjacking

## Summary

Taco Bell placed a newspaper ad claiming it had bought the Liberty Bell. Complaint calls reached park officials and talk radio; a denial, a confession and TV coverage followed. Marketers later claimed higher sales that day and the next.

## Timeline

- 1996-03-31 — PainePR / Taco Bell (Press) — PainePR sent a news release announcing the claimed purchase through Business Wire on Sunday night.
- 1996-04-01 — Taco Bell / Bozell (Press) — Taco Bell ran full-page newspaper ads claiming it had bought the Liberty Bell and renamed it.
- 1996-04-01 — Talk-radio callers (Audio) — Callers protested the claimed sale on talk radio as the newspaper announcement circulated.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/taco-liberty-bell

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Taco Liberty Bell.” Case HIS-01622. Spread Score v1.3: 27/100. Updated 2026-10-23. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01622