Patience pays: Taco Bell plays the waiting game

Toronto – Canadians have been waiting patiently since 2012 for the Taco Bell Cool Ranch Dos Locos Taco, a taco made with a Doritos Cool Ranch taco shell, to make its way north of the border.

To celebrate its arrival, Taco Bell worked with advertising agency Grip Limited to create an arcade game, The Waiting Game, which was installed outside a Taco Bell location. The 8-bit game may be the most boring branded game ever. As the name suggests, it is a game of waiting. Players wait in line, tap their foot and look at their watch as the queue moves forward. Should players be patient enough to make it to the front of the line, their patience is rewarded with a coupon for a free Taco Bell Cool Ranch DLT.

We can’t help but wonder if the people at Grip Limited saw the Waitinginline3d.com video game that had a similar, if more violent, premise, where players wait in line and must punch themselves to stay awake. Either way, the game was a clever bit of Frustration Marketing using the carrot-and-stick approach and where frustration pays off in the end.