Free social-media advice for Taco Bell

After spending all day talking social media at the wOOt conference, it struck me to pass along this bit of advice to Taco Bell. it's my 2 cents, so take it or leave it.

Great concept but tired messagingIf you’ve been to Taco Bell, you know they have these short sayings on their hot sauce packets. Examples include “Will you scratch my back?”, “Ahhh ... we meet again” and “Help! I can’t tell where I am. It’s dark and I can hear laughing.”

They’re a great idea, in concept, because they're a mix of silly and stoopid, and leave a playful branding message that has a lasting impressions. But here’s the deal: These quotes haven’t changed much since launching five years ago. And it seems like the last 10 times my family has had Taco Bell, we’ve received the same three or four messages. We’re bored.

So, here’s my idea for Taco Bell to revive a tired concept: Ask customers to submit their ideas for new quotes to TacoBell.com and give the populace a vote in the winners. Everyone submitting a valid quote could get a something like a free taco (which they're giving away anyway) and winners could get something like free tacos for a year.

Taco Bell would need to screen the submissions to avoid crude (but funny) stuff like this
but too many submissions seems like a good problem for a business to have.

All they’d need to do to kickstart this thing would be to create the web presence, then toss out the challenge to the 16,000+ followers of @TacoBell. Zero marketing cost.

Just a thought.