• September 7, 2007

Taco Bell has chosen three fans to star as virtual actors in an ad for "Fourthmeal"--the late-night meal between dinner and breakfast--set to debut worldwide during the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards on Saturday.

The winners were chosen as part of Taco Bell's "TV Me!" contest, in partnership with Gizmoz and MTV. Gizmoz is an online program that lets people create avatars of themselves. In less than two weeks, consumers created more than 17,000 Gizmoz clips, which were viewed more than 920,000 times.

The contest, launched in early July, earned each of the 3-D animated talking actors 30-seconds of air time during MTV's music awards show. Following the debut on the VMAs, the winning auditions can be viewed on tacobell.com.

Using Gizmoz.com's photorealistic avatars, consumers were asked to audition by uploading a digital photograph. The Gizmoz program creates a 3-D lifelike head and personalized body. Consumers could also record their voices for their 15-second, lip-synched audition. Auditions were judged on personality, originality, overall appeal and ability to express oneself.

Draftfcb in Orange County created the TV spot and added the winning avatars into the "World Stops for Fourthmeal" environment. The 15-second "World Stops for Fourthmeal" spot will run first, followed by the debut of the new spot that includes the three winners.

--Karl Greenberg