Taco Bell has cleverly gathered up people it says are the real Ronald McDonalds of America in an ad campaign for the fast food chain’s new breakfast offerings.
In the ads, which begin airing Thursday, people with the same name as the classic McDonald’s clown endorse offerings like Taco Bell’s new “waffle taco,” dropping seemingly paradoxical lines like, “I’m Ronald McDonald and I love Taco Bell’s new breakfast.”
The fast food chain is looking to boost breakfast sales by rolling out new offerings and opening its 6,000 stores nationwide several hours earlier beginning this week, the Associated Press reports. And it’s no accident that its attention-grabbing commercials target McDonald’s—with popular choices like the Egg McMuffin, McDonald’s dominates the fast food morning hours with 31 percent of sales.
Taco Bell’s ad agency, Deutsch LA, found some 400 people with some variation of the name Ronald McDonald, and the company says it paid a select number of them for their appearances in the commercial, the AP reports.
“All of them resoundingly loved the food,” Taco Bell president Brian Niccol said.
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Write to Noah Rayman at noah.rayman@time.com