Taco Bell Perfectly Spoofs Interstellar With Its Newest Faux Trailer, Starring James Marsden

Taco Bell's first foray into fake movie trailers ("Web of Fries") was so successful, the chain quickly made a sequel (Web of Fries 2). Now, the brand is back with another trailer, Retrieval, but this time James Marsden is the star (the first iteration starred Josh Duhamel) and the spot is spoofing the sci-fi genre rather than mystery. The point, of course, is to let fans of Taco Bell's nacho fries know that the fries are coming back to the menu but to do so in a way that continues to build hype around their return. "We were a long time coming in bringing nacho fries to the world," explains Taco Bell CMO Marisa Thalberg. "People were wondering what took Taco Bell so long, and that inspired our own conspiracy theory, which was then executed in this over-the-top trailer for a fake movie ('Web of Fries')." As nacho fries return to the menu, the decision to revive the cinematic-homage ad campaign was an easy one, given the success of the first two installments. "Now, we decided to bring them back again," she says, "and we just felt like we've hit this very special and somewhat uncommon situation, as we all know in marketing, where there's almost a comparable expectation around the campaign as there is around this product." Agency Deutsch in Los Angeles handled the creative, which riffs on the sci-fi genre but seems to emulate Christopher Nolan's 2014 film Interstellar most of all. There are 15-second and 30-second cuts of the trailer as well as a long-form 60-second version that will again play in theaters. [kickout id="1"] "Sometimes the best ideas come from conversations your audience is already having," says Brett Craig, CCO of Deutsch L.A. "When you look at Twitter or any Taco Bell fan pages, everyone is asking why nacho fries keep disappearing off the menu. So, we decided to offer an explanation—albeit one that is completely absurd." Thalberg echoed that sentiment: "There was a strategic nugget [with this creative approach]. Customers love this product and want to know why we keep taking them away. It's not to be challenging to our consumers. We just have such a robust menu, we're constantly bringing in limited time offers as well as the fabulous things that are on our menu every day, that we decided instead of ignoring it to playfully address it and make it the next inspiration for 'where did they go?' It's just a completely fictitious and over-the-top explanation." The fast-food chain doesn't currently have plans to build out any of its faux trailers into feature films, but Thalberg doesn't seem to have ruled it out completely. "You know it's a pretty rare circumstance when there's an outcry on social media to see a full feature film," she says. "No plans as of now—but you never know." Here's a look back at the first two installments, followed by the credits for the newest spot: [kickout id="2"] [kickout id="3"] CREDITS: Client: Taco Bell Chief Marketing Officer – Marisa Thalberg Senior Vice President of Advertising and Brand Engagement– Tracee Larocca Director of Advertising – Ashley Prollamante Manager, Advertising – Michelle Prieve Account Executive, Brand Experience – Kristen Powell Food Consultant – Carolyn Avelino Agency: Deutsch Creative Credits: Chief Creative Officer, North America: Pete Favat Chief Creative Officer: Brett Craig Creative Director: Jeremiah Wassom Creative Director: Chris Jones Senior Art Director: Krish Karunanidhi Senior Copywriter: Daniel Chen Head of Production: Diego De La Maza Executive Integrated Producer: Paul Roy Senior Integrated Producer: Jamie Gartner Music Director: Eryk Rich Audio Producer: Chase Butters Music Coordinator: Dez Davis Account Management Credits: Group Account Director: Matt Matzen Account Director: Kelly Childers Account Supervisor: Keith Corcoran Account Executive: Lauren Krueger Account Planning: Head of Strategy: Kelsey Hodgkin Strategy Director: Armando Potter Business Affairs/Traffic: Director of Integrated Business Affairs: Gabriela Farias Executive Business Affairs Manager: Ken Rongey Director or Broadcast Traffic: Carie Bonillo Broadcast Traffic Manager: Anna Brito Broadcast Traffic Manger: Ana Barraza Live Action Production Company Production Company: Superprime Director: James Gray Managing Director: Rebecca Skinner Managing Director: Michelle Ross Executive Producer: Roger Zorovich Senior Producer: Ron Mohrhoff Editorial Company Production Company: Union Editorial Editor: Matt Chesse Assistant Editor: Dana Maddox President/Managing Partner: Michael Raimondi Executive Producer: Joe Ross Post Facility Production Company: C03 Producer: Gabriel Wakeman Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld Post/VFX: Production Company: Framestore Director of Production and Operations: Bethan Thomas Sr VFX Producer: Morgan MacCuish Creative Director: Aron Hjartarson VFX Supervisor: Tom Leckie Com Supervisor: Alex Villabon CG Supervisor: Kevin Baker Licensed/Composed Music, Credits and Track Info: Massive Music Audio Post Company: Production Company: Formosa Sound Executive Producer: Lauren Cascio Mixer: John Bolen Sound Design: Per Hallberg Sound Design: Phil Morrill