Taco Bell’s ‘Border Lights’ Teaser Is Heavy on Mystery : Advertising: Official of Irvine-based chain says only that company soon ‘will ignite a fast-food revolution.’

IRVINE — Though it’s safe to assume that Taco Bell isn’t talking about Bud Light or Miller Lite, executives at the Irvine-based fast-food company aren’t disclosing any details of the mysterious “Border Lights” advertising campaign rolled out for Super Bowl weekend.

“It’s a teaser,” said Taco Bell spokesman Jonathan Blum. “We’re going to make a major announcement in the not-so-distant future . . . that will ignite a fast-food revolution.”

That’s heady talk, marketing and advertising executives said, even for the company that revolutionized the fast-food industry in the late 1980s by being the first to identify increased consumer demand for better value.

But “this kind of thing can backfire,” said Cal State Los Angeles marketing professor William A. Cohen. “If you don’t fulfill that promise, it can be a big problem for the company. If you promise to revolutionize something, you darn well better do it.”

The ads that aired during the Super Bowl showed people gazing at mysterious lights in the night sky. The message: Watch for something big coming soon at Taco Bell restaurants.

The company, with more than 4,500 outlets, is keeping mum, adamantly refusing to comment on speculation generated by the advertisements, including the possibility that the Mexican-style restaurant chain might introduce a new, lower-fat menu. Blum would say only that Taco Bell Chairman John Martin will reveal more “in the very near future.”

Robert M. Jones, a retail management professor at Cal State Fullerton, compared the commercials to the “teasing that Infiniti did with its initial car. They showed lots of rocks, oceans, waves and trees. As Jay Leno said, it looked as if they were selling rocks.”

Jones said that marketing experts question the effectiveness of such “tease” promotions. Ultimately, he said, the issue with any ad campaign, including Taco Bell’s, is whether the company “has something to deliver, something that the customer wants.”

Taco Bell, however, maintains that the Super Bowl ads were effective.

“They were designed to pique the customers’ interest about something revolutionary that will come in the future,” Blum said. “And they did just that.”