How Taco Bell is becoming the Apple of fast food

When Taco Bell CEO Sean Tresvant first joined the company as chief brand officer back in 2021, he saw a unique opportunity in the brand’s cultural potential. “Sports, entertainment, music, food…it was like the Beautiful Mind meme with the equations spinning,” he told me in 2024. “They just needed someone to put it on the wall.”

None of his moves since embody this idea more than Live Mas LIVE, Taco Bell’s live stage show in the spirit of Apple’s WWDC. The show began in 2024, when Taco...