Latest Ted Lasso serves up Wingstop, Taco Bell and a lesson in brand fandom | QSR Web
Marketing
Latest Ted Lasso serves up Wingstop, Taco Bell and a lesson in brand fandom
September 17, 2026 by Valerie Gritton
If you’ve been following my professional return to QSRWeb and Pizza Marketplace over the past few weeks, you know I love Ted Lasso (and I’ve learned so many of you love the show, too!). So much so, that I decided every new blog post would somehow tie into the show between now and its season finale.
This week’s episode did not disappoint as there was plenty of positive Ted Lasso-isms to pull from, many of which really did make me laugh out loud.
What I laughed at most, were the two references made about to quick-service restaurants. And both were equally smart and funny, largely because neither was expected.
It’s exciting (to me) when you work in the restaurant industry and your world sneaks into the script. That was certainly the case with Season 4, Episode 7, “Yes & Baby,” which debuted this week.
Amid the show’s mix of soccer, relationships and Ted-isms, there were several moments that sounded particularly familiar (and funny) to quick-service restaurant fans … especially to this Gen X’er.
Yes they were surprising and I’m talking about references to Wingstop and Taco Bell.
The Wingstop reference comes during one of the episode’s characteristically random exchanges between the three coaches. The dialogue went along like this:
[Coach Beard] The party?
[Ted] Yeah.
[Coach Beard] It brought forth complete ego death and yet total resurrection.
[Ted] Yep, that’s exactly how I feel after I eat Wingstop. Hey, Coach, you got a go-to Wingstop flavor?
It’s a small moment, but also the kind of organic brand mention marketers covet. There’s no lengthy explanation of what Wingstop is or what it sells. The brand is simply part of the cultural shorthand of the conversation.
Then there’s a nod that longtime Taco Bell fans will recognize: “outside the bun,” arguably the tagline that helped to position the chain as the alternative to the burger-heavy quick-service restaurant landscape.
[Ted] Oh, okay. Well, uh, back in college, when, you know, Beard and I were, uh, playing football. … Uh, we had this real avant-garde head coach. I mean, this fellow loved thinking outside the bun. A-And that’s a famous slogan from a Taco Bell commercial in the early 21st century and something he’d totally say, right?
Hearing a variation on that phrase decades later is a reminder of something restaurant marketers spend millions of time, energy, effort (and money) trying to achieve: language that outlives the campaign that created it.
Food is a connector and those references remind me of just how connected it is. And maybe that’s what connects me to Ted Lasso. I have always loved to eat and I have always loved going to eat at restaurants. So to see Ted, a character woven into the minds of hearts of so many, also connect with audiences through food, it creates nothing short of fandom loyalty. (And I teared up at the end of this one.)
That kind of fandom is something restaurant chains have long sought to create. At its best, that loyalty turns a restaurant chain from simply a place to eat into something people feel personally connected to and want to be part of.
Viewers know Wingstop. And they understand the debate over wing flavors. And plenty of them still know what it means to think outside the bun. (I know I did!)
It reminds me that sometimes the best brand mention doesn’t come from an ad or a post on social. It’s when your restaurant has become so ingrained in pop culture that it can simply become part of the story or the joke. For restaurant marketers, that’s a powerful place for a brand to be. And with three episodes left in the season, I wonder what I’ll write about next.
Loyalty Programs<a href="https://comicvibe.com/celebrating-vikram-tanna-a-journey-from-broadcast-leadership-to-ai-powered-entertainment/” title=”Celebrating Vikram Tanna: A journey from broadcast leadership to AI-powered entertainment”>EntertainmentMarketingTaco Bell
Related Media
Blog
Me, Ted Lasso and something in common
Blog
‘You’re not annoying; you’re marketing’: Top takeaways from the Restaurant Marketing Workshop
Article
How Golden Chick is taking on QSR giants with new ‘Gimme That Golden’ campaign
Article
QSRs face headwinds, but Taco John’s finds its flavor formula
Article
How Velvet Taco CEO Chris Schultz scales a cult brand without losing its soul
Blog
QSR is losing its lunch to monofoods – here’s what they can do about it
