TACO BELL NACHO CHOP: HOLY WOW HOW DID THEY DO THAT?

Turning Brits’ fear of changing their haircut into a viral PR moment for Taco Bell – Holy Wow, Taco Bell ‘The Nacho Chop”

Our take on PR Week’s Behind the Campaign, but with sharper edges and a little more cheek!

What Was The Problem?

Taco Bell was bringing an unusual new snack into an already overcrowded category: Chicken Nachos. Crispy, triangle-shaped chicken bites of joy. But there was a catch…

Brits had no idea what they were looking at.
Was it a crisp? A chicken nugget? Or something in-between? Something so weird it didn’t even fit in a snack box?

Publicis London (lead creative agency) and Holy Wow (PR partner) had one job: put this confusing little triangle into the centre of a national conversation. On a PR—not ad—budget.

The Idea In A Nutshell

For one day only, Taco Bell added a new item to its menu – a haircut dubbed ‘The Nacho Chop’.

Anyone bold enough to shave a nacho shape into their head walked away with FREE Chicken Nachos—for as long as it took their hair to grow back.

Fun. Playful. Topical. Shareable.

The Journey Towards The Idea

Through a bit of desk research (and a scroll through The Sun, naturally) we cracked the code: Brits say they love trying new things—90% claim they’re up for it.
But when it comes down to it? 72% chicken out. Literally.

And “chicken”? Not just food. It also means cowardly.  That was our hook: fear of change.

We realised Brits fear changing their hairstyle even more than changing their food. So we asked: how far would they go? Could free food push them past their follicle fears?

Enter The Nacho Chop.

The mechanic stayed simple: shave the nacho chop, get free nachos.
For how long? Until the hair grew back.

We chose Camden as our stage—home of punk cuts, bold looks and people who don’t flinch at hair chaos.

Even better?  Camden Council were up for it!

Making The Idea PR’able

The core idea was solid, but to make it truly PR’able we needed some extra spice—topicality, news, and content people couldn’t help but share.

The topical hook? Our barber.
At the time, The Traitors was the nation’s obsession, and its freshly booted barber, Tyler Smith, had just been voted out.  Clippers in hand, cult TV relevance in the bag.

The news hook? Data that showed exactly how hair-averse Brits really are. We commissioned research revealing all the things people would rather change before changing their hairstyle. (Spoiler: almost everything.)

Then came the build-up. Tyler teased the stunt across socials, media were primed, and buzz was building before the first hair even hit the floor.

On the day? It worked. Queues snaked round the block with Londoners ready to risk it all—for nachos. By lunchtime we’d landed the holy trinity of PR gold:

• Scroll-stopping before-and-afters
• A juicy, stat-driven “fear of change” narrative
• Press + influencers posting live from the scene

The Results

Integration was everything. Publicis led OOH. We owned the PR. Together, the campaign smashed it:

• 123 pieces of national & lifestyle PR coverage (from Daily Star to Daily Mirror to The Grocer)
• Over 3m people reached in 24 hours
• Engagement rate of 4.8% across social platforms
• Multiple national media hits in a single day, dominating share of voice in the category

A snack that Brits didn’t quite “get” turned into one they couldn’t stop talking about. And yes, a few of them still have the Nacho Chop to prove it.

A choppy-good PR success.