 In 1996, the national debt hit $5.2 trillion, while that's a drop in the bucket compared to the $21 trillion it's at now. Back then, it was serious stuff. The Republican Congress was battling President Clinton over his proposed budget and shut the government down twice. Well, fortunately for America, help was on the way from Taco Bell. Pledging to do its part to help the national debt, the fast food chain that brought us the chalupa, the quesarito, and the cheesy gordita announced in national newspapers that it had purchased the Liberty Bell. You know, because bells are such a huge drain on the federal budget. Not only had the company purchased the cherished American icon, it was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell, and moving it to its corporate headquarters in Irvine, California. Fast food chains rarely say anything that gets national attention, but this story did. If we had known the Liberty Bell had been for sale, we would have bought it. Americans, including two U.S. senators, jammed the switchboards of both Taco Bell and the National Park Service, demanding to know if the story was true. At first, the Park Service didn't seem to know. We were shocked, a spokesperson said. We had no idea this was happening, except that it wasn't. And few of the incredulous callers had noticed that Taco Bell's ad had appeared on April Fool's Day. This is a joke, right? April Fool's, I hope. Shifting into damage control mode, the Park Service called a press conference and assured the media that the Liberty Bell was safe and not for sale. Anything to reduce the country's debt, right? So Taco Bell never did buy the Liberty Bell, but it stunt bought something more desirable, national attention. And with that attention, the chain announced it would donate $50,000 to help with the Liberty Bell's conservation. Not to miss out on the moment, the White House announced that the Ford Motor Company would be restoring the Lincoln Memorial, which would be named the Lincoln Mercury Memorial. Yeah, they were just kidding about that, too. Once everyone stopped laughing, the Taco Bell story disappeared from the news, but the company had learned a valuable lesson about using iconic objects for marketing. In 2001, as the mere space station re-entered the atmosphere, Taco Bell set up a floating bullseye off the coast of Australia, figuring a piece of the ship might hit it. If mere rings our bell, said VP of Brand Communications, Chris Becker, we will offer a free taco to everybody in the United States. It didn't happen. And that ding-dong idea, like the Taco Liberty Bell, is a footnote in fast food history.