How Taco Bell is becoming the Apple of fast food

When Taco Bell CEO Sean Tresvant first joined the company as chief brand officer back in 2021, he saw a unique opportunity in the brand’s cultural potential. “Sports, entertainment, music, food…it was like the Beautiful Mind meme with the equations spinning,” he told me in 2024. “They just needed someone to put it on the wall.”

None of his moves since embody this idea more than Live Mas LIVE, Taco Bell’s live stage show in the spirit of Apple’s WWDC. The show began in 2024, when Taco Bell fanatics (myself included) traveled to Las Vegas to watch company execs unveil the brand’s new and limited edition menu items for the year.

It was an absurdly perfect premise (a fast food company doing a product launch?!), but now it seems that Taco Bell is beating Apple at its own game. The company’s upcoming Live Mas event—happening on March 3 at Hollywood Palladium—is evolving beyond the WWDC model by going full-fledged variety show. The upshot? This is a company that is so in on its own joke that it’s turning that joke into real culture.

This year’s show is hosted by artist Vince Staples and will feature musical acts Doja Cat and Benson Boone, sports stars like NFLer Davante Adams, projected no. 1 NFL draft pick Fernando Mendoza. An edited version of the live show will stream exclusively on NBCUniversal’s Peacock on March 10.

Global chief brand officer Taylor Montgomery describes this year’s version as be a cross between the White House Correspondents’ dinner and the Emmys… which sounds a little weird! But so far, the brand’s thesis—that building content around its hardcore fans is a path to broader success and results—appears to be proving out. Parent company Yum Brands’ most recent earnings saw Taco Bell as the brightest spot in its portfolio, with 8% growth last year. 

Incremental evolution

Tresvant and Montgomery originally got the idea for Live Mas LIVE after watching Apple’s WWDC developer event in June 2023. Montgomery remembers wondering, “If Apple can do [an event like] that, with, like, a $1,000 iPhone made out of titanium that most of America can’t afford, why can’t we?”

The first two years of LIVE were designed to tap into Taco Bell’s rabid fanbase, which is deeply invested in its menu items. This year, though, the company is doubling down on the entertainment aspect of branded entertainment. “The most successful brands, I believe, are starting to behave more like entertainment companies,” says Montgomery. “The bar for what consumers want to engage with, whether you’re a brand that operates in QSR, or you’re an entertainment company or a music company, they’re all the same.”

Walking the line between high-profile experiential brand event and streaming entertainment is a tight needle to thread, and Taco Bell is approaching it with some caution. Even though the Palladium holds about 3,500 people, the brand is only hosting an audience of about 400, with tickets given to L.A. area Taco Bell Rewards Members on a first-come, first-served basis.

Onstage there is a seemingly random collection of famous names. Ariana Madix (Love Island USA, Vanderpump Rules), Ashley Park (Emily in Paris), Ego Nwodim (Saturday Night Live), comedian Devon Walker, athletes like Davante Adams, and Fernando Mendoza, and artists like DJ Pee.Wee (aka Anderson .Paak), Doja Cat, Benson Boone, Myke Towers, Yeat and more. All they seemingly have in common is a genuine taste for Taco Bell. 

“There’s so many people around the world that love Taco Bell, so for this one we threw up the bat signal and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to do something crazy in Hollywood, but that’s never been done before. Who’s in?’” says Montgomery. 

Experimentation as execution

When I attended the inaugural Live Mas LIVE in Las Vegas, there was a atmosphere of creative experimentation. The audience of about 200 was primarily hardcore fans of the brand and fast-food influencers, with a smattering of celebrity. It was mostly just Montgomery, Tresvant, and chief food and innovation officer Liz Matthews taking turns to unveil the year’s line-up of limited edition products. It had the vibe of food truck party that also happened to be a corporate retreat.

This year is a significant leveling up in terms of the show’s scale and the talent in attendance. But the brand is not taking too many chances, with a relatively small live audience, it will be able to curate the show edit before it hits Peacock a week later. That built-in layer of safety illustrates how Live Mas LIVE is very much still an ongoing experiment.

Montgomery says they plan to iterate on the LIVE format for years—perhaps growing its audience or loosening the guardrails—as long as its hardcore fans are happy to come along for the ride. He’s found that the thing that matters the most is simply giving people something to be excited about. (Like, say, a key lime pie–meets–Mtn Dew Baja Blast Pie.) 

“When you do things that are wild and innovative, it helps people really connect with us, sets expectations that we will give them that entertainment and levity and things to talk about with all of their friends,” he says.

Cultural researcher Matt Klein, author of award-winning cultural intel and research newsletter ZINE, says that even if the event is uneven or doesn’t draw millions of viewers to Peacock, more brands should take this approach. Not as a blueprint, but a sign to experiment more intently in their own way. 

“In a culture in which we are so afraid to make any creative decision without a bajillion data points and 500 slides to back up why we should do this, this is an organization that is playing with culture,” says Klein. “They’re rolling up their sleeves and just experimenting. They’re zagging, and that is worth applause.”

It’s critical that the experimentation isn’t just for fun. Montgomery says that because they combine entertainment with real upcoming new and limited edition menu items, the fan reactions in-person and online play a valuable role far beyond the single event. 

“We actually use it like a live focus group,” says Montgomery, about the entertainment format and the new menu items. “Let’s see what consumers say, and if they go for it, okay, awesome, we’ll put it on the calendar. If not, okay, then let’s think about something else. So I think we have used it a lot as a cultural thermostat on my brand view.”

Whatever happens this year, it will just be the newest dish from the brand’s entertainment test kitchen.