• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Wednesday, December 13, 2006 11:15 AM

Taco Bell stepped up a PR offensive yesterday by buying ads in major newspapers headlined "Taco Bell Food Is Safe." The ads spotlight a letter from Taco Bell President Greg Creed outlining the steps taken by the company to assure the safety of its restaurants.

With green onions no longer the prime suspect in an E. coli outbreak tied to its restaurants, the fast-food chain now faces a difficult marketing challenge: How to convince consumers its food is safe, when it doesn't know what made them sick. Previously, the company had focused on explaining that it had found the suspected cause of the outbreak and had remedied the situation.

Yum Brands, Taco Bell's parent, estimates it has conducted about 1,000 interviews with print and broadcast media since early last week. It has sent news releases trumpeting the safety of its restaurants to traditional media outlets, as well as blogs. It's also hired Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, a strategic-communications firm, to advise it. Despite these steps, PR experts question whether Taco Bell should have been even more aggressive in calming consumer fears.

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