Restaurants

Taco Bell Tweets The Best Response To Customers Who Beg For Meals To Return

Taco Bell food KULLAPONG PARCHERAT/Shutterstock
By Justina Huddleston

When you suffer a loss, are you the type to reflect in melancholic silence, or do you immediately jump onto social media to make it someone else's problem? Well, if the loss you're suffering is that of a fast food item, chances are you're hopping on Twitter or Reddit to demand that the item be added back to your favorite chain's menu. And who could fault someone for thinking this strategy would work? After all, KFC recently brought back the Double Down sandwich after years of fans begging, and even Pizza Hut's "The Big New Yorker" pizza was recently revived.

But it turns out that getting your favorite fast food menu items back isn't as simple as berating and begging the social media managers behind your favorite restaurants — at least, not according to whoever's running Taco Bell's Twitter account. On March 15, it tweeted out, "we're just a social media manager who doesn't have the power to bring back menu items." We never thought it would be possible for a corporate social media account to sound so ... weary. But here we are. Does this mean that Taco Bell bringing back the Volcano Menu wasn't the result of being nagged at by fans about it for more than a decade? Not necessarily, and a few other food brands chimed in to say "well, actually," sometimes that is how it really works.

Speak for yourself, says Skittles

Taco Bell Doritos Logo Taco rblfmr/Shutterstock

Taco Bell's Twitter statement was met with some support, gathering 2,678 likes. And it's hard not to feel some empathy for the marketing grad who's just trying to climb the ladder, only to be faced with angry, hungry fans tweeting at the brand all day. But the people running socials for other brands saw this as an opportunity to flex their own powers. "That's what I thought too... but then I brought back lime. Never underestimate your power," said the Skittles account. "I can bring back discontinued drinks, I have that power, but hey you do you," shared AriZona Iced Tea.

However, though customer feedback is an important part of designing a fast food menu, brands have other considerations to make, too, and getting new items on the menu can take years of product development. Fast food fans should also remember that just because some people like an item, doesn't mean everyone will. Brands need to consider their ability to make money off of their menus, and can't just make decisions based on what a group of particularly vocal fans is asking for on Twitter. Still, perhaps badgering social media accounts does work sometimes — one day after the initial tweet, Taco Bell hopped back online to say "sike 🌋Volcano Menu is coming back." Maybe being a keyboard warrior is worth it, after all.

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