Clownin' Around with Taco Bell

The "breakfast wars" of 2015 saw the introduction of McDonald's all-day breakfast menu and Taco Bell's breakfast offerings. The two massive franchises fought to secure their positions as "the" fast food breakfast. While McDonald's did heavily advertise their new all-day menu, their ads were nowhere near as direct and adversarial as Taco Bell's, who put out a short film and 1984 propaganda-style posters suggesting that McDonald's was some sort of mandatory, "routine" breakfast, encouraging consumers to rebel by switching to a Taco Bell breakfast.

This particular ad features an approximation of McDonald's famous Ronald McDonald mascot, and depicts what is presumably the Egg McMuffin as a bland, cylindrical food.

McDonald's opted to respond with a facebook post, a photo of a small, frightened chihuahua, Taco Bell's famous mascot. The caption read "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." This response was incredibly simple, relied solely on the established and familiar iconography of these brands, and, in my opinion, sent an effective message about how McDonald's viewed the Taco Bell campaign in the most straightforward and hilarious way possible.