Steal a Base Steal a Taco Vote for Free Either Way

Tomorrow Tuesday the 28th of November Taco Bell will give you a free taco if you go to any participating Taco Bell between the hours of 2 and 6 pm. It is part of a promotion called steal a base steal a taco. The base stealing part of the equation has already been completed as all that it required was for there to be one stolen base during the World Series. It does not increase if more than one stolen base occurs so there is no need to watch the rest of the World Series to cheer for additional free tacos unless you were already interested in watching the games which of course you are free to do.

I imagine that not everyone is excited by the prospect of a free 89 cent taco. It may seem that there are more important things going on in the country than a free taco. I understand the skepticism. Many of you may have been more excited if it was a supreme taco. You don't have to tell me no one understands the importance of sour cream and tomatoes in a taco more than me. For many years I thought supreme was a Spanish word meaning sour cream and tomatoes. I assumed it had been translated from the original word supremo. I was out with a beautiful Latina who complimented me on my supreme mastery of the English language.

I laughed and said that what she had said was cute, but I think maybe something was lost in translation as in English supreme meant sour cream and tomatoes.

She looked confused at first and asked me if I was joking. There is nothing supreme about a supreme taco she replied it could just as easily have been called an ultimate taco or a grande taco, but really it was an excuse to charge 30 cents for tomatoes and sour cream.

Seriously they already have Nachos Bell Grande so that would have been even more confusing. You obviously never studied marketing. Also in my defense your people were a little misleading in their advertising as you stated they were just looking for a way to charge extra for things that most people would normally consider an integral part of a taco.

I can't even begin to explain all of the things that are wrong with that statement, but I am Asian and the guy who runs Taco Bell is an Australian I think and it either still is or used to be owned by Pepsi.

My embarrassing completely true anecdote aside let me get to the point of this post. I like tacos. I am not going to deny that I like tacos, but unless I am already near a Taco Bell tomorrow between 2 and 6 I probably will not bother to make the trip just to get a free taco. In the past this has been the sort of enthusiasm displayed by some when considering whether to vote in the presidential election. That might be a slight exaggeration although if the presidential choice was not on the ballot and it was a congressional race or heaven forbid a state senate race it would be an accurate assessment. Now I'm not advocating giving everyone who votes a free taco. Maybe it would increase voter turnout, but I think maybe we should be grateful that we have the right to vote and it does not even depend on whether or not a baseball team gets a stolen base, although if you were convicted in the past of stealing baseball equipment from your local sporting goods store you may not be eligible to vote. That was not my point though. I don't think the reward for voting needs to be greater but I do think the time frame for when you can vote should be greater. I can understand why Taco Bell would not want the window of time to receive a free taco to be more than four hours, but the window of time for voting in some states is not much longer. Some states close their polls at seven or eight pm. In some more heavily populated areas people have to wait in line for hours to vote. Taco Bell isn't giving away tacos because it wants to be nice. I'm not criticizing them it's just the truth. They realize that if you give someone a free taco they will probably buy more food while they are there. Also if they have never been there before maybe they will try it for the first time and be more likely to go there again in the future. More than anything though if someone gets something for free they are likely to have a positive association with the product. If I had to wait in line for several hours to get a free taco I would not wait in line and if I did then my experience would not have been pleasant and thus the promotion would not have done it's trick. I am not saying America or the voting experience is a product but if you were a young voter in an inner city who was excited about voting for the first time only to realize when you showed up at the polls that it was going to be a two or three hour wait maybe your enthusiasm would diminish slightly. It would probably be disheartening to see footage on television of people in more affluent neighborhoods walking in and not having to wait more than a few minutes if at all. At the very least Election Day should be made a national holiday, but I think it should be a three day weekend to better ensure that those with difficult work schedules or those who have transportation issues will have an easier time making it to the poles. Maybe people would be willing to stand in line for a supreme taco or to vote for the supreme leader of the country a.k.a the President, but if we could make the experience more convenient for everyone there is a chance they would stand in line for a regular taco or perhaps even a local congressional race.