NCS Business has produced a headline so pure, so direct, so violently inevitable, that no rewrite desk ought to be allowed inside 500 toes of it: “Taco Bell has a diarrhea problem.”
The precise story is grim and gross: NCS reports that shredded iceberg lettuce bought at some Midwestern Taco Bell places has been linked to a cyclospora outbreak involving greater than 1,600 circumstances and practically 100 hospitalizations. Taco Bell says it eliminated the probably affected lettuce from its provide chain, however that headline is doing HEROIC work.
The headline is ideal as a result of it refuses to decorate up. No “brand challenge.” No “consumer confidence headwinds.” No “gastrointestinal reputational exposure.” Just “Taco Bell has a diarrhea problem,” a sentence that walks into the room, places its keys on the desk, and tells everybody to cease pretending.
In the world of on-line journalism, the headline is the complete enchilada.
Previously:
• Mark Dery on Taco Bell
• Taco Bell now has a wedding chapel in Las Vegas
• Yet another subscription service emerges… this time, from Taco Bell
• Taco Bell employees beat up customer in street after complaint
• Taco Bell exec fired after assaulting Uber driver