Biting humor gives Mighty Taco advertising edge

Funky, unique commercials helped the small business blossom into a Buffalo tradition, and the chain is not about to mess with its recipe for success.

Business First

Week of 4/4/94

By Bruce Andraitch

The classic definition of an intellectual: Someone who hears the "William Tell Overture" and does not think about the Lone Ranger.
The classic definition of a Buffalonian: Someone who hears "Boom, boom, boom, boom" and knows immediately to intone, "Might-y Tac-o."
There are 15 Mighty Taco restaurants today, 14 in the Buffalo area, one in a Syracuse mall.  The place that once served as the "in" crowd's post-party, Hertel Avenue hangout now plays host to minivan-driving moms, factory workers, college students and anyone else with a hankering for Mexican food, Buffalo-style.
The world knows about chicken wings and beef on weck, but Mighty Taco is, for the most part, still our little secret.  It has enjoyed phenomenal local success in an industry that is supposed to be owned by the McDonald's franchises and Pizza Huts of the world.
A big part of the chain's success is its often-effective, sometimes-offensive, always-inventive advertising campaigns.  In the early years, the task of writing and performing commercials fell to co-founder Andy Gerovac, who developed a series of classic ads that are still remembered today.
There were the song parodies, such as when "My Sharona" became "Mighty Taco."  There was a takeoff on a prayer, "Our taco, who art on Hertel, hallowed be thy burrito." Always, there was "Boom, boom, boom, boom."
Those were among the tamer ads.  There was also the one that featured a guy getting on a bus and saying, "What's that smell?" Scatology was a favorite theme.
"It came off as being sort of rough, but creative," says Susan Augustine, president of Creative Concepts of WNY.  "It sounded like a couple of guys got together and said they wanted to come up with an idea and talk to people on their level.  And they hit it on the button."
Karen Carey, president of Complete Creative Inc., says: "The early ones were really bizarre.  They offended some people.  I liked them, personally, because they had a warped sense of humor.  But they made themselves very different.  It was a lot like a cult kind of thing.  They were able to make themselves seem like a big chain, like McDonald's, and they were able to make an impact."
A few years ago, as the business continued to grow, Gerovac reluctantly decided to turn the advertising over to someone else.  A few months before he made the decision, James Gillan, executive creative director or Paragon Advertising, initiated a meeting with him to pitch some ideas.
Although at the time Gerovac wasn't interested, Gillan chatted with him and they found they had similar interests in movies.  Gerovac remembered him when he made his decision, and Paragon has been the driving force behind the restaurant's advertising for the past five years.
"There's an old advertising adage that great advertising takes great clients.  I've never seen it more applicable than in this case," Gillan says.  "As a matter of fact, when we were hired by Mighty Taco, (Gerovac) says, 'I have a history of very innovative commercials, so you have a tougher job than somebody going to a company that does very mainstream or vanilla advertising.'  It's fairly easy to keep up with that.  You just change it from, 'It's a great place to eat' to 'It's a wonderful place to eat.'
"So he says,  'With us you've got a real challenge on your hands.  You can do anything you want.  The only thing you can't do is become boring.'"
When Mighty Taco opened on Hertel in 1973, the idea was to make it an alternative to the mundane, Gillan says.
"They used their advertising when they first opened to really gain momentum with that sort of idea.  So their advertising was equally hip and avant garde," he says.
That was Gillan's challenge and curse; he could have fun, but never take it easy.  The fact that Gerovac wanted the relationship to be more like a partnership made it a perfect fit, Gillan says.
Some examples:

• Star Trek remains a hugely popular device, and one campaign using the gang from the Enterprise is a Gillan favorite:  Taco Trek.  After several taco references in a radio ad, using the familiar voices of Capt. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty, the crew is preparing to beam back up with the Mighties.  Kirk asks; "Bones, do you think we got enough for everyone?"
  "How should I know Jim?  I'm a doctor, not a waiter."

• After watching a commercial reel from a Buffalo Bills game, Gerovac realized that while the commercials were on, no one in the stadium seemed to be paying attention.  He asked Gillan to come up with a way to take advantage of a captive audience of 70,000 or more.
  In turn, Gillan thought that at every garage sale he'd ever been to, someone was selling a copy of a Harry Belafonte calypso album.
  Soon "Daylight come and me want go home" became "Everybody's going to the Mighty Taco."  As many people seem to know that ad as know the "Shout!" song.
  "When that first 'Day-o' comes on, you've got literally 70,000 people or better singing along.  And when people are at the Super Bowl, they're singing it there, even though it's not on.  It's kind of transcended both the commercial and the game.  It's become part of the game experience."

• One month, the budget for advertising had a small surplus and the decision needed to be made between a radio ad for a month or a billboard.
  Mighty Taco usually goes for the radio, so Gillan decided to do a billboard.  Artists
  airbrushed a bag of Mighty Tacos on a huge copy of the Mona Lisa.  The caption read,      "Shirley MacLaine for Mighty Taco."
  "You either got it instantly and it was kind of humorous or you didn't know what in God's name that billboard was all about.  Either way, you commented on it and talked about it," he says.
  The publicity was huge.  MacLaine's people obtained a cease-and-desist order, but for 30 days, motorists on the outbound Kensington Expressway got a good chuckle or had to ask someone about that Mighty Taco billboard.

•  The placemats for trays at the restaurants are customer favorites.  Gillan says they, too, have become a "cult thing, where people come in and ask for the extras to send to friends."  The current one, Hockey Night in Buffalo, purports to show what really happens on the bench at a Sabres game.  One guy is on a cellular phone talking to his broker.  Another player is talking to noted hard hitter and thespian Rob Ray: "No, I beg to differ with you, Rob.  I think Shakespeare meant no poetic metaphor, but literal translation as is."
  Another says: "I've never seen anything like it.  The blood, the gore, the filthy language."
  "In the game?"
  "No.  In the contract negotiations."

The future of advertising for Mighty Taco is largely like the present.  Radio has been the primary focus and will continue to be, because fast-food customers tend to make decisions on the fly and radio can influence them, Gillan says.  But unlike the old days when Gerovac used rock stations, he can now go to any station in Buffalo and know that his ad will reach his diverse customers.
"If they've got listeners, then they've got our audience," Gillan says.
Nancy DeTine, president of the Professional Communicators of Western New York and executive vice president of Mitchell-DeTine and Partners, says Mighty Taco ads work because they get attention.
"It's funky stuff.  It actually sounds less-produced and less-thought-out than it is.  It also sounds like a lot of fun," she says.  "And you can't argue with their success."