What Happened To The Taco Bell Chihuahua?

Today, we're getting to the bottom of what happened to the Taco Bell Chihuahua

Taco Bell already had a reputation for humorous, offbeat advertising throughout the 1990s

While these off-the-wall promotions got people talking about the fast food icon

they rarely equated to spikes in sales. The Taco Bell was undeterred

The bar was set high for weirdness, and they were about to clear it with a very small dog

Enter the Chihuahua. This little dog made its debut in a 1997 commercial

Voiced by Carlos Alasraqui of Reno 911 and Rocco's Modern Life, the Chihuahua instantly won over hearts and stomachs

with a catchphrase, Yo quiero Taco Bell, which in English means simply, I want Taco Bell

The Taco Bell Chihuahua was a male character, but the dog in the commercials was actually female

Her name was Gidget, and in addition to the Taco Bell ads, she had a few other acting gigs

The Taco Bell Chihuahua became a massive pop culture phenomenon. Merchandise was everywhere

including t-shirts and even toy plush chihuahuas for kids that recited Yo Quiero Taco Bell at the push of a button

Merchandise flew off shelves, and for a while, it seemed like everything was coming up tacos, until suddenly, it wasn't

The Taco Bell Chihuahua's success was met with controversy and a string of unfortunate events

Not long after the campaign took off the Chihuahua started facing accusations of racism Some individuals and groups felt that the use of a dog with a stereotypical Mexican accent was problematic Latino civil rights leader Mario G Obledo called for a boycott of the restaurant

if the ads weren't discontinued. And then there was the lawsuit. According to the Seattle Times

dispute over the rights to market the sassy chihuahua began in 1998 when Joseph Shields and Thomas Rinks

of Grand Rapids, Michigan, filed suit claiming breach of contract. In the suit, Shields and Rinks alleged

that they had developed a psycho chihuahua cartoon character and had met with Taco Bell's advertising team

to potentially use the character in a series of commercials when the fast food giant stole their concept

and took it to another agency. Taco Bell wound up on the losing end

of this particular court battle and was forced to hard shell out

millions of dollars in damages. Despite the chihuahua's runaway popularity, the sassy little pup didn't translate

into increased sales for Taco Bell. By 2000, Taco Bell pulled the plug on the campaign

Gidget lived on, refusing to let the Taco Bell fiasco derail her dreams of stardom

She continued to make sporadic appearances in pop culture, including more commercials and a brief but memorable role in Legally Blonde 2

Eventually, she passed away in 2009 at the ripe old age of 15

In the end, the Taco Bell chihuahua didn't fail because it wasn't love

It failed because, in a way, it was too successful. He became a pop culture icon, bigger than the tacos he was meant to promote

But people loved the dog, not necessarily the chalupa it was selling