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You’ve heard stories about the 100-day WGA strike in 2007-2008 that paved the way for streaming royalties. But I’m guessing you’ve never heard this story. How one heroic writer stood up to the biggest villain of the entire WGA strike. That’s right, I’m talking about Taco Bell.
The strike started on November 5, 2007, and shortly thereafter, Taco Bell decided to lend its support to the striking writers the best way it could think of: by exploiting us for free labor!
It was called the “Writers Strike Sauce Wisdom Contest.” The idea was that presumably bored writers could submit catchy slogans for the sauce packets and ten winners would receive a year’s supply of Taco Bell (retail value $260).
Seems fair, you write their ad content for free and maybe they give you 52 $5 coupons. But here’s the key proviso that caused the whole harebrained scheme to blow up in Taco Bell’s face: The contest was only open to WGA members.
You see, there simply aren’t that many WGA members. Maybe 9,000 at that time. And a national contest by a major corporation can’t succeed with only 9,000 potential entries. And Taco Bell wasn’t going to spend good money advertising a contest that so few people could enter.
The few WGA members who had heard of the contest were justifiably offended that Taco Bell wanted writers to write free marketing slogans for a chance to win $260 worth of tacos. So naturally no one entered the stupid contest. Well, almost no one.
Someone at our weekly poker game had heard of the contest—I think it was Damon Lindelof—and we sat around that night coming up with slogans. The next day, we had all forgotten about it, so none of us actually entered the slogans in the contest. Well, almost no one.
That’s right. I entered the contest. And that began my year-long epic battle with Taco Bell that literally ended in a lawsuit.
The contest ended in May and I didn’t win. But I wanted to know who did win. The WGA is actually a pretty small group and even if we don’t all personally know each other, we know OF each other. Did Robert Towne win the Taco Bell Sauce Wisdom Contest? I bet it was Charlie Kaufman!
So I sent a self-addressed stamped envelope to the address on the contest for the list of winners. (Read the small print in every contest ever—they have to provide you with a list of winners if you ask.) And then I waited.
And waited. For months. But no list. So in June I looked up the number and called Taco Bell. I spoke to a woman in consumer affairs and she promised she’d get me the list.
No list. I called again in August and spoke to the same woman. She said she’s still trying to track it down but would definitely get me the list!
But again, no list. It was now December 2008. The strike had ended back in February but I still didn’t have a list of the ten WGA members who’d won the Taco Bell Sauce Wisdom Contest! I was starting to think that maybe… there were no winners.
I called again and a new guy informed me that there weren’t enough entries to actually print the winning slogans on the sauce packets but oh yes, there were definitely winners and he would email me the winners list right away.
Guess what? He didn’t.
I guess I could have just let it go. I mean, I didn’t NEED to know who won. I didn’t NEED to get to the bottom of-- Haha yeah right. I am literally the master of not letting it go.
So on December 30, 2008 I sent a demand letter to the CEO of Taco Bell threatening to expose the contest as a sham and report Taco Bell to the California Attorney General.
On January 13, 2009, Taco Bell responded and said that “due to the low number of valid entries submitted during the contest,” the contest had been cancelled. They admitted it! I was right! There were no winners!
On January 16, I filed a lawsuit for fraud.
On January 17, I received this letter:
It seems that magically EVERYONE who entered won the contest and received $260 worth of Taco Bell coupons! Huzzah!
In the end it was easier to give everyone who entered a year’s supply of Taco Bell than to fight me in court. They never printed the winning slogans on the sauce packets which is probably for the best. And it turns out $260 is a LOT of Taco Bell. It actually did last a year!
And by the way if you’re one of the other WGA members who won the contest I’d love to hear from you. I bet it came as a big surprise when you got that letter a year later saying you won! Not saying you owe me or anything. Just saying Don’t fuck with the Writers Guild. #Solidarity
