By Greg Hazley
Taco Bell pushed back sternly on Tuesday against a class-action suit claiming the Yum Brands unit is not serving "ground beef" as advertised.
The suit, filed by an Alabama law firm, is demanding a "corrective advertising" campaign, not monetary damages. It has become a national story and PR crisis for Taco Bell, which works with Cohn & Wolfe and was already in the news cycle as it pulled its advertising from MTV’s controversial show "Skins" last week.
Greg Creed, president and chief concept officer for the Mexican fast-food chain, blasted the suit in a statement Jan. 25. "Unfortunately, the lawyers in this case elected to sue first and ask questions later -- and got their ‘facts’ absolutely wrong," he said. "We plan to take legal action for the false statements being made about our food."
Beasley Allen, the Montgomery firm leading the suit, said it is challenging TB’s "practice of representing to consumers that its restaurants serve ‘seasoned ground beef’ or ‘seasoned beef’ filling in its products."
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in California, wants TB to "properly advertise and label food items" and to engage in a "corrective advertising campaign to educate the public about the true content of its food products."
Attorney Dee Miles said TB’s product does not qualify as "ground beef" under federal guidelines. He claims that seasonings added are actually fillers and binders that reduce the actual beef content per serving.
Babak Zafarnia a former director in Burson-Marsteller's issues and crisis unit who now runs her own firm in D.C., said TB's response was evasive while noting its Facebook and Twitter pages were ignoring the issue.
"Taco Bell needs to revise its crisis management and litigation PR strategy quickly, if it plans to avoid a big corporate black-eye as lawsuit discovery charts its inevitable course," she said.
Taco Bell, meanwhile, is conveying that its buys beef from "the same trusted brands you find in the supermarket, like Tyson Foods," while outlining the cooking process and pointing consumers to its website, where it identifies all seasoning and spice ingredients.
TB is based in Irvine, Calif., and has 5,700 restaurants.
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