Taco Bell's diet claims ring hollow to many

Lose weight; eat at Taco Bell.

Just in time for New Year's resolutions, the international chain that brought forth low-priced, neo-Mexican fare like the Cheesy Gordita Crunch and the additional "Fourth Meal," now claims that its "Drive Thru Diet" helps people shed pounds.

In fact, one spokeswoman promoted by the company says she lost 54 pounds while eating for two years from the Taco Bell "Fresco" menu of healthier-than-normal items.

Here, Taco Bell offers a combination endorsement-disclaimer.

"These results aren't typical, but for me they were fantastic!" says Christine Dougherty, the star of national ad campaign. As proof, the Web site www.drivethrudiet .com contains both before-and-after bikini photos of Christine, plus coupons for free tacos.

Such an ad campaign stuns many dietitians, and electrifies some bloggers.

A spokeswoman for buzz tracker Nielsen, Michelle McGiboney, said reaction to the campaign tends to lean negative, with a rash of blogs calling it "ridiculous, dumb, confusing, disturbing, won't work, insane, humorous and self-deluded."

Positive mentions included phrases like "step in the right direction for Taco Bell," "intriguing" and "love it."

Cooking up some PR

Public relations officials note that the Drive Thru Diet comes from a fast-food chain with a long, colorful history of PR stunts.

Sister company KFC generated buzz by voluntarily filling potholes and spray painting them with the KFC logo. And just this week, KFC, originally Kentucky Fried Chicken, helped emblazon founder Colonel Sanders' face on fire hydrants to promote the new "fiery" chicken wings.

The Drive Thru Diet echoes Jared of Subway fame and his claims to have lost massive amounts of weight eating its sandwiches.

Taco Bell's campaign has its caveats and footnotes.

In small type, the ads say Taco Bell items are "not a low calorie food" and implore eaters to "Pay attention to total calorie and fat intake and regular exercise." An online infomercial includes captions that note the "real people" on the street who try the food are paid actors.

Hold the cheese, please

The primary difference between normal Taco Bell items and those in the Fresco lineup is the replacement of cheese with salsa.

Christine claims eating Fresco items helped her cut her daily calorie intake by 500 to 1250 calories. Mathematically, that's hard to do by choosing different Taco Bell items alone, dieticians say.

The Fresco steak burrito has 330 calories, according to Taco Bell's nutritional disclosure form, while the regular steak Burrito Supreme has 380 calories, a difference of 50 calories.

Theoretically, it's possible to lose weight while only eating Taco Bell food, said Sarah Krieger of the American Dietetic Association. "You could eat nothing but chocolate every day, but if you are burning off more calories than you consume, you're going to lose some weight," Krieger said. "But is that healthy? Not so much."

As a buzz-generating tactic, the campaign may have worked.

Counter to Nielsen's findings of a negative tilt, Taco Bell is attracting significantly positive buzz among a key demographic group, 18- to 34-year-olds, according to Ted Marzilli, managing director of BrandIndex, a research unit of the firm YouGov.

Marzilli said positive chatter among that group jumped from an index score of 9.5 to 25.8. (A zero score means positive and negative comments were equal.)

Older groups seemed positive, but not affected much by the recent campaign since the December launch, Marzilli said.

"A lot of people could be chuckling about Taco Bell trying to make itself out to be healthy," he said. "It could also be that people who love fast food are wanting to believe this message."