Taco Bell's World Series free taco promo

Taco Bell has announced that they will be offering a free taco to everyone in America if there is a left-field home run in tonight's Game 3 of the World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers.

If an eligible home run is hit the free taco will be offered on November 1, 2006 between 2 pm and 5 pm.

“We can’t think of a more fitting way to celebrate America’s Favorite Pastime than by giving fans a chance of winning America’s favorite taco,” said Bill Pearce, chief marketing officer, Taco Bell Corp. “Since we haven’t given away a free taco in previous World Series promotions, we felt this was the perfect time to ‘think outside the bun’ and open up the offer to include any home run over left or left center field.”

The promotion, called "Think Outside the Park," has some detailed terms and conditions:

"Taco Bell will offer the prize identified below for ANY "home run" hit over the "left field" wall. "Left field" will be defined as the territory from straightaway center field (directly from home plate) to the left field foul pole (including the foul poll), as determined by Taco Bell in its sole discretion. For purposes of this event, an eligible "home run" is defined as a ball hit during regulation or extra innings play and is subject to the determination/designation of the official Major League Baseball scorekeeper as an official home run. If a home run is hit over the left field wall during regulation or extra innings play by any player for either team, Taco Bell will offer every person in the U.S. the opportunity to obtain one (1) free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco (Approximate Retail Value 77¢)."

and here's a nice little caveat for those standing in line for the free taco on November 1 (if there is a left-field home run):

"Everyone in line at a participating Taco Bell restaurant before 5:00 p.m. local time will receive a Free Taco, even if is provided after 5:00 p.m."

And by the way, Go Cardinals!

Update: With no home runs through the 6th inning, Taco Bell announced that they would expand the promotion to include any home runs (not just ones in left field), but there were no home runs. The Cardinals shut out the Tigers 5-0! Yipee!

Taco Bell got a lot of publicity out of this promotion: the sportscasters talked about it, there was signage behind home plate and kids in the crowd could be seen holding up Taco Bell posters that looked like hot sauce packets. I'm sure they paid a lot for the promotion and it didn't really matter to them whether there was a home run or not.