It sounds like a fast-food grudge match: Taco Bell is taking on the homeland of its namesake by reopening for the first time in 15 years in Mexico.
Defenders of Mexican culture see the chain’s re-entry as a crowning insult to a society already overrun by U.S. chains - from Starbucks and Subway to KFC.”It’s like bringing ice to the Arctic,” complained pop culture historian Carlos Monsivais.
The company’s branding strategy - “Taco Bell is something else” - is an attempt to distance itself from any comparison to Mexico’s beloved taquerias, which sell traditional corn tortillas stuffed with an endless variety of fillings, from spicy beef to corn fungus and cow eyes.
Taco Bell, a unit of Louisville, Ky.,-based Yum Brands Inc. (Charts, Fortune 500), made its name promoting its menu to Americans as something straight out of Mexico. But it’s a very different dynamic south of the border.
Here, the company is projecting a more “American” fast-food image by adding french fries - some topped with cheese, cream, ground meat and tomatoes - to the menu at its first store, which opened in late September in the northern city of Monterrey.
Other than the fries and sales of soft-serve ice cream, “our menu comes almost directly from the U.S. menu,” said Yum Mexico Managing Director Steven Pepper.
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