How Taco Bell made that terrifying giant taco Snapchat lens

By Digiday • May 5, 2016 •

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.”