What would you do for one last Choco Taco? The iconic sweet treat has been in the midst of a social media firestorm ever since Unilever's (UNLYF) Klondike announced in July that it would discontinue the product as part of the "very tough decisions" needed to keep the company profitable.
The outcry was swift as the frozen dessert has been around since 1983 and is a part of many childhood memories — as part of a longstanding partnership with Yum! Brands-owned Taco Bell, the Choco Taco also spent many years not just inside ice cream trucks but also on the menus of the Tex-Mex food chain.
"If Choco Tacos are gone, what's next?" iconic horror writer Stephen King wrote on Twitter (TWTR). "Hershey Pies? Salt and vinegar potato chips? Baseball? AMERICAN DEMOCRACY? I tell you: this is how it starts."
Klondike
The Last (Choco Taco) Supper
While Klondike denied theories that it was pulling it back only to bring it back a few months later in a marketing push, it later issued a statement saying that Choco Taco's "overwhelming support" made them "reconsider [their] long-term plans."
But until the company figures out when that will be (and what the Choco Taco of the future will look like), fans will not be able to buy it — earlier this summer, the company asked Twitter users what it should do with the remaining 912 tacos.
"Sorry everyone, we can't just send the rest of the tacos to your house," Klondike wrote on its Twitter account. While our Choco Taco experts work hard on a plan to bring them back, we need BIG IDEAS for the last 912 tacos."
Klondike
Klondike selected three replies to that question and put them into action . On September 3, it handed out 500 Choco Tacos at the last baseball game of the season in Savannah, Georgia.
Some were thrilled to get a taste taste of their childhood dessert may have missed all the Choco Taco backstory and were just happy to score a free dessert.
"As a sequel to 2001’s smash hit Rat Race, I think you should put them in a freezer in Death Valley, share the coordinates and see what happens," another Twitter user wrote in response to Klondike's question.
Klondike
While there was no racing Rowan Atkinson or Whoopi Goldberg through the dessert, Klondike did put a freezer full of Choco Tacos at Death Valley's Oasis Hotel — anyone who came to the address (or stumbled upon it accidentally while at the hotel) could get one.
Rat Race And Where The Sun Don't Shine
The last tweet that Klondike selected suggested they put those last 912 tacos "where the sun don’t shine."
That, in Klondike's interpretation, turned out to be Bellingham, Washington — the 90,000-person town forty minutes south of the Canadian border is often classified as one of the least sunny places in the country.
Klondike
It was more of a come-and-get-it for those who happened to be in Bellingham and nearby a Klondike representative said at the time. Those looking for more challenge can still participate in Klondike's virtual scavenger hunt.
Especially given Klondike's hints at a return, constant mention of "one last Choco Taco" have been turning into more and more of a marketing push. But for those who do want to score another one, Klondike's Instagram account will be posting combinations of emojis to guess the account they should go to the next on September 21.
The first 100 people to arrive at the "virtual freezer" on September 21. will get a Choco Taco mailed to them.
