The 50 Cent vs Taco Bell feud should have been one of many weirdest ever.
It’s additionally a spat that couldn’t have occurred at some other time in historical past.
50 Cent has been the goal of diss tracks previously. It goes with the territory of his work. However locking horns with one in all America’s most beloved quick meals establishments was somewhat odd.
It began with a joke. What adopted was a $4 million lawsuit.
Why did 50 Cent feud with Taco Bell?
All of it begins in 2008. We’d not consult with that fateful yr as a “happier, simpler time,” but it surely was a significantly much less demanding election yr than any which have adopted.
In Could of that yr, Taco Bell launched its new worth menu. That is when anybody studying this greater than a decade and a half later ought to start to weep.
Costs for particular person gadgets on Taco Bell’s worth menu had been 79 cents, 89 cents, and 99 cents. In 2024, these are nearer to the value of a single packet of Taco Bell’s Avocado Verde sauce (which, to be truthful, is scrumptious) than to an precise meals merchandise.
You’ll have already guessed the place that is going.
To advertise their new worth menu, Taco Bell’s marketing campaign included a (joking) suggestion that fifty Cent (whose actual title is Curtis James Jackson III) change his title.
Quite than 50 Cent, the enduring quick meals franchise advised, he would possibly change his title to 79 Cent, to 89 Cent, and even to 99 Cent.
50 Cent was not amenable to the suggestion
To be truthful, it doesn’t sound like 50 Cent’s subject was with a joke about renaming him.
Quite, he accused Taco Bell of utilizing his title — for an promoting marketing campaign — with out his permission. In 2008, he was nonetheless thought of a “big name” in common tradition.
And that’s the reason he filed a $4 million lawsuit in opposition to Taco Bell. At the moment, that may have been sufficient for greater than 4 million worth menu gadgets!
Social media already existed in 2008. Moreover, boards and different web communities (again when Google functioned effectively) gave folks locations to speak.
In response to 50 Cent’s lawsuit on the time, based on The Guardian, some followers assumed that fifty Cent had endorsed Taco Bell’s merchandise. Allegedly, numerous bloggers had been placing him on blast for “selling out” — once more, per his authorized submitting.
In different phrases, he accused Taco Bell of misusing his title and trademark with out his permission — and of inflicting hurt to his public picture and model. Whereas many individuals would really feel nothing in need of delight to function in a Taco Bell advert … they’d need to log off on it and receives a commission, proper?
Who received the 50 Cent vs Taco Bell lawsuit?
By 2009, it turned extensively reported that fifty Cent had received the Taco Bell lawsuit. Nonetheless, his legal professional advised the general public that neither occasion could be discussing the main points of the settlement (which is normal).
It’s pure for many individuals to instinctively facet with Taco Bell over somebody like 50 Cent. However we hope that the settlement glad all events.
In the meantime, regardless of the rampant greedflation inflicting costs to skyrocket in recent times, there’s one upside to ordering Taco Bell greater than 15 years after 2008: you may simply have it delivered.
