Taco Bell Pulls Anti-Veggie Taco 12-Pack Ad

Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Don’t mess with veggie fans. After a Twitter uproar, Taco Bell has pulled an ad encouraging people to pass on the veggies and opt for its 12-pack of tacos instead.

The ad said bringing a veggie tray to a game day was “like punting on fourth and one.”

Sunday morning the Center for Science in the Public Interest tweeted, “Shame on @Taco Bell for disparaging healthy vegetables in its ad. High-calorie, high-fat tacos will not help you #LiveMás!”

“It’s bad enough that there aren’t many ads on television for broccoli, kale or carrots. The last thing healthy fruits and vegetables needed was to be the subject of attack ads,” said CSPI nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan in a statement.

Taco Bell pulled the ad Monday morning after a flood of angry veggie-lovers responded on Twitter.

“We love vegetables.  In fact, each year we serve our customers more than 45 million pounds of tomatoes, 122 millions of pounds of lettuce, 7 million pounds of onions and 412 thousand pounds of cilantro. When we realized the ad was misconstrued, we sided with the vegetables and pulled it,” said Rob Poetsch, a Taco Bell spokesman in a statement.

But do commercials really have a big impact on a day that most plan on breaking their diets anyway?

“I don’t believe that you can’t say whatever you want about a food if it’s your opinion … but you have to be prepared for pushback,” said Keith Ayoob, director of the Nutrition Clinic at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

“The advertisers believe that they hike sales.  I always believe that ultimately the consumers have to be in charge,” said Ayoob.

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