Join us at the Digiday Publishing Summit from March 24-26 in Vail

Taco Bell is letting everyone live out their secret Cinco de Mayo wishes by becoming a taco.
To celebrate the holiday, Taco Bell purchased its first selfie lens that transforms people’s heads into giant crunchy tacos with a dollop of the chain’s Diablo spicy sauce dribbled on top.
The filter — all crunchy head-shell and bulging eyes — is terrifying sane people, and is hit among its younger followers.
Here’s a sampling of reactions, mostly positive:
American Horror Story: Taco Bell Snap Filter
— Teighlyr (@teighlyr_) May 5, 2016
The taco bell filter on Snapchat is one the scariest things I’ve ever seen
— leilani (@leilalalani) May 5, 2016
Can we taco bout how lit this filter is pic.twitter.com/XxcO19mOb5
— K. (@korinitaaa) May 5, 2016
I want the taco filter on snapchat to stay forever
— Kelstar* (@kelseyleexx3) May 5, 2016
Move over Donald. @tacobell will be our next president. pic.twitter.com/1ZXlMlbytc
— Kevin Frankenfeld (@kpf) May 5, 2016
While getting a taco at Taco Bell takes minutes, Ryan Rimsnider, senior manager of social media for the Yum!-owned brand, told Digiday creating this took six weeks and was created in-house.
“We’re the world’s biggest taco fan and what better day to celebrate that,” he told Digiday. “We wanted to delight taco fans everywhere with an experience that we’ve been thinking about for quite some time.”
This is Taco Bell’s first selfie lens, although it’s no stranger to Snapchat. It previously used the app to promote its new menu item during this year’s Super Bowl and regularly creates stories on its own account that has more than 225,000 followers.
The filter, Rimsnider said, was just another way to appeal to a social-savvy audience: “It was a fun surprise to start their day; and these celebratory, highly engaging and interactive moments worth capturing are what they live for.”
More in Marketing

YouTube reveals how Shows will help to push creators’ episodic content
YouTube Shows will allow creators to structure their content on their channels as though they were fully-fledged, episodic TV shows.

Digiday+ Research Briefing: A look at the state of social marketing as the TikTok ban draws near
What social media platforms will marketers focus on if TikTok is banned? Examining consumer usage of various social media platforms may help answer this question.

How marketers at FX, Paramount and Criterion feel about experiential at SXSW
SXSW experiential offerings varied from immersive activations from Criterion and FX to holistic takes from Amazon and Paramount+.