The Rise And Fall Of The Taco Bell Chihuahua

Last year, Chowhound writer Buffy Naillon investigated the history of McDonald's iconic Hamburglar mascot and the fluctuation of his popularity over the span of his time as one of the faces of the McDonald's brand. While Taco Bell's most famous character is far less famous than the McDonaldland gang (including Ronald McDonald the clown and the recently viral purple blob named Grimace), forgetting her legacy would be an insult.

Taco Bell's most beloved mascot was a 12-pound chihuahua named Gidget. She was given the job thanks to animal trainer Sue Chipperton, who boasts over 60 movies in her repertoire and has trained animals for blockbusters such as "Legally Blonde" (2001), "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" (2008), and "Jurassic World" (2015). 

While working with Studio Animal Services, Chipperton was seeking out a litter of West Highland terrier puppies for a future project; however, at the breeder's home, she fell in love with a particularly spunky, bouncy eight-week-old chihuahua puppy with large ears. Then and there, she decided that the dog was destined to be a star. The studio adopted the puppy, and the rest is history.

Gidget wasn't cast as the Taco Bell dog until she was three years old; in 1997, she appeared in her first commercial for the fast food establishment. In it, she is given a thick male Spanish accent (voiced by actor Carlos Alazraqui) in which she says the now iconic Taco Bell catchphrase: "¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!" ("I want Taco Bell" in Spanish). She was featured as the lead, while being joined by another chihuahua to play her love interest.

Gidget was popular on set for being such a fantastic actress. She was applauded for her work ethic, her excitement in the studio, and her ability to focus on a camera. For her first commercial, she was allegedly done after one take. With such an easy dog to work with, everything about the Taco Bell commercial launch should have gone smoothly. Key phrase: should have.

"Yo quiero Taco Bell" and other similar variations of the catchphrase are still popular today. So much so that there are multiple versions of talking Gidget plushies being sold across the internet on secondhand sites that include other commercial references, like from the chain's 1998 crossover commercial with Godzilla. While many people thought the commercials featuring Gidget were enjoyable since they featured an adorable chihuahua, the slogan and portrayal of Mexican culture became extremely polarizing topics. Many deemed the Taco Bell dog character as racially insensitive for perpetuating stereotypes about Hispanic people and the complaints had the advertisements removed from television altogether. 

Civil rights activist Mario Obledo referred to the character as "despicable" and "degrading" in a 1998 L.A. Times article. A spokesperson for Taco Bell said the brand's commercials featuring Gidget only aired after market testing through focus groups with Hispanic participants. Taco Bell's advertising director Chuck Bennett also stood behind the restaurant's controversial choice to put the dog in a beret to look like Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara (plush versions of Gidget in this outfit were also sold in the past). 

In 1998, the L.A. Times also published an article titled "Yo Quiero Respect and Sensitivity," a clever nod to Taco Bell's offensive slogan while talking to Latinx people about the fast food chain's commercials. However, this was not the end of the brand's controversies surrounding their chihuahua mascot.

Although the brand stopped using Gidget as a mascot in 2000 after an alleged drop in sales after the controversies surrounding her commercials, Taco Bell was sued in 2003 by two men from Michigan who claimed that they had come up with the idea for the restaurant to launch a chihuahua mascot. Thomas Rinks and Joseph Shields claimed that their campaign "Psycho Chihuahua" was created alongside Taco Bell, but the fast food chain did not pay the men for their work. Rinks and Shields won over $42 million total in the settlement.

Following this loss, Taco Bell tried to sue TBWA/Chiat/Day, the advertising company that developed the pitch that was eventually used in their first commercial featuring Gidget. They claimed that TBWA should have been aware of the possibility of a lawsuit regarding the similarities between their pitch and Psycho Chihuahua. Taco Bell lost the lawsuit, thanks to a unanimous decision from a three-judge panel.

Despite her controversial life, Gidget was truly a star. She reprised her role as the Taco Bell chihuahua in a 2002 GEICO commercial, and even landed a spot in the 2003 "Legally Blonde" sequel "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde" where she played the mom of main character Elle Woods' dog, Bruiser.

Unfortunately, Gidget had a stroke at 15 years old and was euthanized shortly after. Karin McElhatton, owner of Studio Animal Services, told ABC News that Gidget, then retired, "lived like a queen, very pampered." During her time in the spotlight, the chihuahua traveled first-class and visited Madison Square Garden. While her career was contentious, Gidget's impact on fast-food mascots cannot be denied.