Mexican Pizza

Taco Bell

Keep scrolling to read the full tale of Mexican Pizza. Or skip to Mexican Pizza: The Musical.

In Fall of 2020, Taco Bell announced they were taking Mexican Pizza off of their menu, and fans everywhere flooded social media to express their disappointment.

But no one was louder than our most vocal fan – Doja Cat.

So how do you work with a celebrity that’s actively hating on your brand?

Introducing Doja Cat – The Anti-Hero

In this approach, Doja Cat antagonizes Taco Bell, creating a playful back-and-forth frenemies vibe, until Taco Bell ultimately brings back the Mexican Pizza.

Some of it was planned…

Some of it was, well, unexpected.

But fans couldn’t resist the “monstrosity of a beat” Doja Cat made for Taco Bell.

To announce its return, we hijacked the biggest music culture moment of the year: Coachella.

So, how did we get to a musical?

Doja’s viral “contractual jingle” sparked fan duets, stitches, covers and parodies.

But one really caught Taco Bell’s eye – Victor Kunda’s “Mexican Pizza: The Musical” TikTok.

We got to work bringing Mexican Pizza: The Musical to life. With Victor as our star, GRAMMY-award winners Barlow and Bear as our writers, a partnership with Playbill, and real-life Mexican Pizza fans from across the internet, we knew we were just missing one thing.

Dolly Parton, of course.

The Mexican Pizza officially returned to the Taco Bell menu on May 19, 2022, with our musical set to premiere live on TikTok on May 26. But two factors outside of our control would cause us to postpone our air date. On May 24, 19 students and two teachers were tragically killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Out of respect for the victims and families, we didn’t feel that the celebratory nature of Mexican Pizza: The Musical was appropriate so soon after this tragedy. Then, Mexican Pizzas were selling out nationwide – and by the time it was appropriate to share the musical, our fans would not have been able to enjoy it with a Mexican Pizza.

So, we postponed.

While we waited, we wondered how to celebrate the (re)return of the Mexican Pizza in September. What our story was missing, we thought, was showing the true breadth of fans’ love for Mexican Pizza across the internet. So our initial two-act musical got a third act – a love song for the Mexican Pizza featuring dozens of fans.

Finally, we were ready to premiere the long-awaited Mexican Pizza: The Musical, Live on TikTok on September 15, 2022.

Mexican Pizza: The Musical

After premiering LIVE on TikTok, the musical was uploaded as three acts on TikTok, and in full on YouTube.

On premiere day, Taco Bell became the first-ever brand to have an audio tab on TikTok, featuring snippets of the musical.

The album is also available to stream on Spotify, listing Dolly Parton as a featured artist.

We partnered with Playbill to create real, official Playbills for Mexican Pizza: The Musical.

Hard copies signed by Doja Cat, Dolly Parton, Victor Kunda and Barlow and Bear were given to Taco Bell’s top rewards members and Mexican Pizza fans.

View the Playbill as a PDF.

Mexican Pizza has garnered more than 5 billion press impressions since its relaunch.

Here are some of my favorite articles:

The live premiere of Mexican Pizza: The Musical received 9x our target KPI of live views.

Acts 1-3 have totaled more than 13 million views on TikTok, and counting.

Pssst – that’s my hand!

Most importantly, the fans love Mexican Pizza: The Musical!

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