Design Awards ’26: Taco Bell’s Bell Noise Perfected the Sound of “Fat-Fuck Slobbery”
- matthewjoss17
- Mar 16
- 2 min read
This year, BTO is proud to announce the first of our BTO Design Awards, which goes to the noise made by the Taco Bell Bell – an iconic signature which evokes an unparalleled feeling of depravity and "Fat-Fuckness".
BTO spoke with Winston Elliot of design firm Winston Elliot Design, about how his team landed on this signature sound.
Elliot: This was a work of supreme effort which began with deep research into our customer base, their hopes and dreams, and the role of Taco Bell in their lives. We realized quickly that most Taco Bell customers were hitting local low points in their day & we needed a sound that reflected an absolute bottoming out.
BTO: When we hear the bell, we feel our bowls quiver. How did you conceive of the bell’s relationship to the GI tract, and when did you know you’d hit a sweet spot.
Elliot: We experimented with hundreds of discordant noises, derived from all sorts of ancient prisons, torture chambers, and inhumane spaces. We wanted our customers to feel like the unending pain could cease for a sliver of time, and we wanted our bell to ring in that fleeting, foolish moment of bliss. The sound was derived from an ancient British-Ghanaian Slave Bell which signified both the time for dinner, and cleaning of the defecation troughs – thus, the intuitive association with cleansing bowl movements.
BTO: One of the most notable uses of the bell, is right after a mobile order is placed on the Taco Bell Mobile App. Customer’s receive confirmation of their order with a resonant DONG. Was that a proposed from the get-go? Or was it the product of a design process?
Elliot: The latter. Through product testing we realized this particular noise was so shameful, that users began to enjoy their association with its depravity. Like an embarrassment kink, people knew what they’d done was horrible, and they were attracted to a noise that laughed in their face.
BTO: To others, it seems, the bell is utterly repulsive.
Elliot: Exactly. The Bell is a stratifying force which breeds a niche and feverous in-group. Once you identify the bell noise as your friend and not your enemy, you remain immune to the judgment of other people which inevitably comes from eating Taco Bell. You’re one of those freaks, and you’re proud to understand what others do not.
BTO: What was the most rewarding part of this design process?
Elliot: When we were putting the finishing touches on the bell's frequencies, it acutally killed five parakeets in someone's home office. It was then, that we knew we'd done something remarkable.
BTO, San Francisco
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