New Taco Bell Breakfast Ad Features 25 Ronald McDonalds

Taco Bell is getting an endorsement from a very unlikely figure: Ronald McDonald.

Actually, 25 Ronald McDonalds.

According to USA Today, Taco Bell gathered 25 men from across the country whose real names are Ronald McDonald, and is featuring them in a new ad that touts the Mexican fast food chain's new breakfast menu with a tongue-in-cheek jab at their biggest competitor.

The cheeky new ad begins with a narrator saying: "To show you just how much people are loving Taco Bell's all new breakfast, we asked some very special people."

A group of men then introduce themselves, and each is named Ronald McDonald. Each man also happens to be a huge fan of the new Taco Bell breakfast sandwiches.

The ad ends with the group of men seated together, saying: "My name is Ronald McDonald, and I love Taco Bell's new breakfast."

The ad, which was created by the agency Deutsch L.A., ends with the narrator declaring: "Breakfast anybody can love -- even Ronald McDonald."

Taco Bell identified as many as 400 Ronald McDonalds, then narrowed them down to 25. The ad was filmed last month in Los Angeles, Calif.

The persistent fast food chain battle has the $200 billion industry vying for supremacy in the breakfast arena. According to the research firm Technomic, breakfast is a $50 billion segment in fast food. While McDonald's leads the fast food breakfast market with a 25 percent market share, Taco Bell feels that the fast food behemoth is not as strong as it once was.

"Our customers have asked us to do breakfast because there's a sea of sameness in breakfast sandwiches," says Brian Niccol, president of Taco Bell.

Taco Bell is featuring three new breakfast foods as part of their breakfast menu: the A.M. Crunchwrap (scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheese and bacon or sausage in a flour tortilla), the Waffle Taco (warm waffle wrapped around sausage patty or bacon with eggs, cheese and syrup), and Cinnabon Delights (mini Cinnabon treats).

The whole breakfast menu has 14 items, which cost $1 to $2.49.

The menu debuts nationally Thursday.