Breakfast is back at Taco Bell. Taco Bell is giving fans a reason to celebrate with a free Toasted Breakfast Burrito on October 21 from 7-11 AM (local time), while supplies last. Taco Bell will help to ensure they don’t miss their free Toasted Breakfast Burrito opportunity on October 21 by offering a “Wake Up Call.” By texting “Wake Up” to 1-866-WAKEUP3, fans can sign up to receive a pre-recorded wake up call from Taco Bell to kick start their morning with a reminder.

To wrap up this breakfast celebration, the brand has also debuted a Breakfast Sleepwear Collection on Taco Bell’s retail eStore: Taco Shop. The collection includes an ultra-plush hot sauce packet blanket perfect for snuggling and pajama sets and eye masks.

Taco Bell fans can come together to cheer for the first stolen base in the World Series with the “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” deal.

For the 10th year, Taco Bell will give everyone a free Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco after the first stolen base in the World Series. The first stolen base triggers the big prize, and then Taco Bell announces the date when the free tacos will be doled out at locations across the US.

The World Series will kick off on October 26. Tune in to see your favorite team and/or solely because you want a free taco.

Taco Bell introduces the new Cantina Crispy Melt Taco nationwide this week. The Cantina Crispy Melt Taco features a freshly fried white corn shell that’s filled with melted nacho cheese sauce and three-cheese blend, seasoned beef, reduced-fat sour cream, lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese, and diced tomatoes. You can also make it vegetarian by switching the seasoned beef for black beans. As part of the nationwide launch, Taco Bell is offering Rewards members exclusive early access to the new Cantina Crispy Melt Taco from October 5 through October 6.

The Cantina Crispy Melt Taco will be available to everyone starting Thursday, October 7.

Celebrate National Taco Day with Taco Bell! Last year Americans ate over 4.5 billion tacos! Get a Free Crunchy Taco with a $1 purchase on the Taco Bell app on October 4. The reward on the app is valid for a free Seasoned Beef Crunchy Taco with any food or drink purchase of $1 or more at participating locations. It is not available with a delivery order.

Yum! Brands announced Wednesday that KFC executive Sabir Sami will take over as CEO of the chicken brand to begin 2022.

Sami, who serves as KFC’s COO and managing director of KFC Asia, will succeed Tony Lowings, who is retiring early next year. Lowings has been with the company for nearly three decades, and has led KFC as CEO since 2019. Throughout his career, he has worked as president and COO, managing director of KFC Asia-Pacific, and managing director of KFC SOPAC (Australia and New Zealand), among other roles.

Sami will start January 1 and assume global responsibility for driving brand strategy and performance of KFC.

[QSR Magazine, 9/22/21]

On September 19, “X” marked the spot at Long John Silver’s for “Talk Like a Pirate Day”. Customers were encouraged to give their best “Aargh, ahoy, and heave ho,” for a special treat—a free piece of fish or chicken for customers that talk like a pirate and a free two-piece fish or chicken basket for those who suit up in their best pirate gear.

Stephanie Mattingly, chief marketing officer of Long John Silver’s said “Talk Like a Pirate Day is just another way that Long John Silver’s can continue engaging with and giving back to our customers.”

In a very limited test market, customers with the Taco Lover’s Pass can order one crunchy taco, soft taco, spicy potato soft taco or Doritos Locos taco per day for 30 days straight on the chain’s app. The cost of the pass ranges from $5 to $10 a month, depending on the location. The program is being tested from Sept. 9 to Nov. 24.

According to a recent survey of drive-thru customers, Taco Bell and KFC ranked #1 and #2 respectively among the top 10 drive-thru chains in the U.S. Taco Bell recorded a total time through drive-thru of 268 seconds and KFC, 272 seconds. The next closest was Carl’s Jr/Hardee’s with 286 seconds. Chick-Fil-A rounded out the top 10 at 541 seconds.

The FoodserviceResults team, in partnership with QSR magazine, conducted a comprehensive, nationally representative survey of drive-thru consumers in the U.S. using an online survey sample. Additionally, onsite audits were conducted in July 2021. Leveraging insights from numerous industry experts, the finalized survey was completed by 1,007 drive-thru consumers during fieldwork.

Taco Bell is moving to reduce waste that ends up in landfills by kicking off a partnership with TerraCycle, a major recycling company, which will make it very easy for customers to send in their single-use sauce packets for recycling. About 8.2 billion packets of Taco Bell sauce are used in the United States each year. Thanks to this partnership, Taco Bell sauce packets could soon go on to have a second life as outdoor furniture, a plastic shipping pallet, storage container, flooring tile, or material used at playgrounds and athletic fields.

Customers will be able to take these steps to recycle sauce packets:

1) Sign up for a TerraCycle account.
2) Collect empty sauce packets in a box.
3) Once your collection box is full, log into your TerraCycle account to download and print a free shipping label.
4) Ship your box via UPS.

Yum! Brands announced Thursday that Kimberly-Clark veteran Aaron Powell will take over as Pizza Hut’s CEO effective September 20.

Powell, the former president of Kimberly-Clark’s Asia-Pacific Consumer Business, is succeeding Artie Starr, who joined Topgolf as CEO in April. The new Pizza Hut leader will report to Yum! CEO David Gibbs and will assume global responsibility for driving growth strategies, franchise operations, and performance.