BIG BELL

TitleBIG BELL
BrandTACO BELL
Product/ServiceTACO BELL
Category A05. Music / Sound Design
Entrant EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
PR EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production UNIT9 London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 2 PRIORY POST London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 3 OFFSET AUDIO London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Mattias Ronge Edelman UK Chief Communication Officer
Stefan Ronge Edelman UK Chief Communication Officer
Anders Hallén Edelman UK Chief Innovation Officer
Jamie Cordwell Edelman UK Creative Director
Annabelle Bould Edelman UK Account Manager
Guen Murroni Edelman UK Agency Producer
Lucy Melling Edelman UK Managing Director
Jordan Atlas Edelman US Executive Creative Director
Julie Blakely Edelman US Associate Creative Director
Gabe Duran Edelman US Senior Copywriter
Anna Schultz Edelman US Junior Designer
Jill Knisley Edelman US Global Client Lead
Katie Brownstein Edelman US Account Supervisor

Describe the creative idea

Big Ben – probably London’s most iconic landmark – was down for repairs. For four years, London would be missing the classic hourly chimes (known as The Westminster Quarters) which offer a soundtrack to the city. What a fantastic time for the world’s other great bell – Taco Bell – to make their first appearance in the capital. What if we could make Londoners believe – just for a moment – that their beloved Bell had sprung back to life?... If we could convincingly mimic the sound of Big Ben, capture the public’s bewilderment and create playful, sharable online content to reveal that is was in fact Taco Bell who had offered up their bell, we could have Londoners eating out of our, well, taco restaurants…

Describe the execution

Authenticity of the Big Ben bell sound was paramount. Our sound designer speaks on the executional craft: “The original Taco Bell chime was made with a Yamaha DX7 is an 80’s FM synth, which is a specific type of technology that was very new in the 80’s to kind of create sounds - recreate sounds. Taco Bell used the internal voice number 26, Tubular Bell, for their sonic identity - the Taco Bell gong sound. We mixed it with recordings of Big Ben to create a new version of The Westminster Quarters on the original Yamaha synthesizer. We tested five or six different speaker designs - outside. We tried military grade speakers, really flat panel speakers and hyper directional speakers, amongst others. Some were damaging to hearing and others could be perceived as weapons…both hazardous when activating on Westminster Bridge, next to the Parliament. The challenge was to create the impression of one thing happening, on three different speaker systems that would be moving around. We had to sync these up perfectly, while avoiding radio interference, or the illusion would be ruined. The event team had to make sure that the wireless frequencies did not get interrupted and that we could stay anonymous to law enforcement. We gave Londoners the illusion of that Big Ben had resurrected, but with a Taco Bell accent. They didn’t see the hours put into it in the studio, in real life testing of different speakers and systems, in methods of hiding them, to eventually make the Taco Bell chime appear to come from Big Ben itself.” The stunt ran for an entire day in London, with the bells chiming every hour, on the hour. Embargoed releases of the stunt increased the activation’s impact, and amplification via influencers and media gave the stunt global reach.