In 2014, the first moment of future NBA superstar Nikola Jokic’s career was interrupted when the NBA Draft broadcast cut away to a Taco Bell Quesarito commercial. In the 11 years since then, fans have continued to resurface the viral broadcast clip and the long standing ‘beef’ between Jokic and Taco Bell as a keystone of NBA cult lore.
When Taco Bell brought the Quesarito back to their menus for a limited time in 2025, we knew this was the perfect moment to resurface the decade-long feud and transform it into a huge and drama-filled launch for the Quesarito. Our objective was to use a partnership with Jokic to ignite our fans and create large-scale buzz for the Quesarito's launch.
Despite being one of the most celebrated players in the NBA, Nikola “Joker” Jokic famously stays out of the limelight as much as possible. He’s not on social media, he’s not a media personality, he doesn’t lean into his celebrity. But we also knew that fans were the ones who were driving the viral feud with Taco Bell – Jokic’s complete ambivalence only made it more compelling.
We decided to go straight to the fans, and invite them to become a part of the drama in its newest chapter. We created a very public plea of forgiveness to Jokic, begging him to give our newly reinstated Quesarito menu item a chance.
First we re-instigated the ‘beef’ with an apology video on paid social using the viral clip of the Jokic draft moment that would be instantly recognizable to fans. We also used OOH targeted to places Jokic might frequent in Denver, such as the airport and by the basketball stadium, to capture local attention.
We then invited fans to directly participate in the drama by turning them into walking billboards for Jokic. We hosted a Denver Nuggets game takeover where we gave away over 20,000 shirts featuring our plea of forgiveness. The takeover sparked a viral moment where fans extended the conversation outside the arena as well, creating Reddit threads about the T-shirt takeovers, posting videos on their social pages, and even buying and selling knockoff versions of our shirt.
Rather than resolving the drama, the campaign was designed to fuel it. Instead of having Jokic respond directly to us, we invited fan speculation by creating a custom shirt for him to wear walking into his game reading “still won’t try it.” As fans and media pressed him for answers, Jokic doubled down on his refusal with his signature nonchalance, fanning the flames of conversation and keeping the community guessing.
Our Quesarito launch campaign ignited a storm of activity from NBA fans. Our fans dialed up online conversations, starting 10+ number of Reddit threads dedicated to guessing what would happen next with Jokic and Taco Bell, which garnered more than 2,400 engagements. Custom, fan-made GIFs of Jokic and the Quesarito flooded our comment sections on Instagram and TikTok. Our Denver Nuggets T-Shirt takeover sparked a mass wave of knockoff merch sales, with over 20 separate vendors creating copies of our shirts to sell online.
This buzz translated into a massive launch moment for the Quesarito. Each Taco Bell store nationwide sold 85 Quesaritos per day sustained through the entire launch week. The Quesarito permeated orders far beyond just NBA fans, with 1 of every 10 orders from Taco Bell including a Quesarito during launch week.
