christian sternal

creative director | copywriter

I started working on the Bell in the early Think Outside the Bun era. Shortly after the “Yo Quiero” chihuahua was kicked to the curb. It was a challenging time, to say the least. After years of flat or declining sales the marketing team at TB HQ was understandably anxious. Which made our account team flinchy. Which caused everyone to overthink everything before they approved anything. Those first few years were a crazy, messy lesson in patience, listening and partnership—and they were some of the most memorable of my career.

I started working on the Bell in the early Think Outside the Bun era. Shortly after the “Yo Quiero” chihuahua was kicked to the curb. It was a challenging time, to say the least. After years of flat or declining sales the marketing team at TB HQ was understandably anxious. Which made our account team flinchy. Which caused everyone to overthink everything before they approved anything. Those first few years were a crazy, messy lesson in patience, listening and partnership—and they were some of the most memorable of my career.

"Venus"

Most food at the Bell is designed to be flavorful and only mildly spicy. But the Spicy Chicken Burrito actually had a decent little kick to it. We wanted to say that, but we didn’t want to give the impression that it was too spicy…for people.

“It’s a little spicy.”

Henson’s Creature Shop—the Muppet people—created the Venus flytrap for this spot. It took three puppeteers to operate it and each was paid as on-screen talent.​

"Muffled"

When people think “fajitas” they think of a smoking hot cast iron pan filled with sizzling seasoned steak, peppers and onions. Which is exactly how Fajita Quesadillas from Taco Bell are not served. No, we had to find a way to cue sizzling flavor without the sizzle. Which we did.

“Maybe it’s muffled by cheese.”

That’s The League actor/comedian Steve Rannazzisi on the left. He hadn’t done too much notable work yet at this point in his career. All we knew was that he was funny as hell and had crazy good comedic timing.

The Big Bell Value Menu Days

During the QSR value wars of the mid-2000s, instead of beating customers over the head with smaller, cheaper food, Taco Bell decided to take the strategic high road. They created a value menu with full-size items and rallied behind two little words that got right to the point. “I’m full!” Then every month we cranked out loads of new work for it. What’s here is just the tip of the voluminous BBVM iceberg. Tap the button above for the much deeper story…if you’re into that sort of thing.

“I’m full!”

"The Zesty Project"

Big Bell Value Menu’s Zesty Nachos weren’t available in stores when we got the brief, so we headed over to Taco Bell HQ to have the crafty food scientists in the test kitchen whip us up a batch. First impression: crunchy, savory, damn tasty. The zesty was strong with these nachos. It was like they almost had…too much flavor. The script practically wrote itself from there.

“Too much flavor?”

We used a high-speed camera to film a lot of stuff being smashed and blown into tiny bits for this spot. Including several massive windows rigged with detonating cord. Which was stupid loud, dangerous—and pretty awesome.

Other BBVM Work That Worked

A few more contributions to the much larger value menu puzzle.

If you think the pirate, Steve Little, looks familiar, it could be because you watched Eastbound and Down. He was in just about every episode.

Mt. Dew Baja Blast-off

Blend classic Mt. Dew, tropical fruit flavors and shot of lime and you get Mt. Dew Baja Blast. It was a big deal that it was a totally proprietary Dew crafted to pair perfectly with Taco Bell food—and my partner and I were stoked to be the ones to launch it. 

We started with work that packed a punch. Visually cued up the intense tropical lime taste and dared viewers to find out more. When they did visited online, we entertained them with shareable, homegrown-looking live action video of one of the print ad scenarios playing out IRL—with a little unexpected twist.

I’d had a list of things I wanted to fit into a spot this year—a wood chipper was one of them. Life goals.

Theres an alternate version of the Baja Blast wood-chipper video that employs a bunny instead of blimp. True fact. Tap HERE to view it in a new tab.

The Second Stage

Not long after launch, we layered in radio and refreshed the print with a second round of ads that reminded “thrill-seeking” HFFUs that there’s only one place you can get Baja Blasted.

HFFU (pronounced WHO-foo) stands for “Heavy Fast-Food User.” They’re super fans, early adopters and influencers—the target audience for most Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR) advertising.

The El Presidente Sweepstakes

With the launch and success of Baja Blast, the client decided they needed to do a contest. The winner would be flown to Southern California to become “El Presidente” of Taco Bell HQ for a day, showered with a whole bunch of gifts and perks and awarded a check for 1 million pesos. It was pretty goofy, but not gonna lie, had fun writing it. 

1 million pesos was equal to about $93,000 US at the time. Today, it’s worth closer to half that.

The X Games Hit L.A. Hard

The Bell wanted to serve up some visibility as an official sponsor of the 10th X Games. We turned the “X” into a criss-crossed bandages icon, created a theme line and ran with it. Posters advertised the games and were handed out at the event. Along with a limited number of hand-screened skateboard decks that looked well-loved and cracked in half—held together by the Xth X-games bandages logo. 

The Late Night Wars

In the mid-2000s quick serve restuarants found a fresh way to steal market share. They started aggressively developing late night menus to lure in customers away from each other. Wasn’t long before The Bell found itself in a nasty and sustained late night loyalty tug of war—and as core brand creatives, we found ourselves in the trenches right in the middle of it. 

Spice up the Night

EFFIE North America
Silver
Restaurants
2004​

Spice Up The Night

While other quick-serve restaurants were busy trying to lure consumers in with the same old burgers, we decided to put Taco Bell’s most crave-worthy tastes and textures front and center. The Spice Up The Night campaign launched with a toolkit full of TV, radio, OOH, POS, everything they needed to let every 18-35 year old in the country know that the grill is on and the drive thru is open til midnight or later. The work was more than a little effective—it was Effie effective.

“Don’t let anything stop you…”

Adam West—TV’s original Batman and the voice of Mayor Adam West on Family Guy—did the VO for “Tiger” radio spot. That was a pretty good day.

A Late Night Evolution

We created a series of spots around specific late night “triggers.” MELTY, CRUNCHY, SPICY, and GRILLED—four tastes and textures that are freakishly hard to ignore when you get a craving for them late at night. These triggers became the foundation that the next phase of late night—FOURTHMEAL—would be built upon.

Drip-Drop Baseball

Yes, trayliners. Taco Bell wanted us to use in-store messaging to let everyone know that it was in a serious relationship with Major League Baseball during the World Series. This was one of those completely under-the-radar projects that no body wanted or paid any attention to—until we turned trayliners into an ownable game and won awards with them. 

Belding Awards
Bowl Winner
“Batter”
2004-05​​

Belding Awards
Finalist
Campaign
2004-05​

ADDYs, D15
Silver
Campaign
2004​

ADDYs, OC
Silver + Silver
Campaign &”Batter” Single
2004​

ECD scott montgomery, tom o’keefe, bill chimino, eric funke  | EVP bob gale  |  SVP-GCD matt reinhard  | CD chip fuller, chris d’amico, chase ramirez, dee mcquaide  |  CW christian sternal  |  ADs brent thomas, david cho  |  EVP bob gale  |. SVP-ACCOUNT PLANNING michelle purcell | ACCOUNT SUPERVISOR terri bevacqua | PRODUCERS jim phox, john brooks, dan reilly, tom anderson • ORIGINAL LEAD LATE NIGHT TEAM:  CW christian sternal  | AD brent thomas  | EVP bob gale | ECD tom o’keefe, | SVP-GCD matt reinhard  | CD chip fuller  | SVP-ACCOUNT PLANNING michelle purcell | et al.

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