A lawsuit filed in 1998 by Joseph Shields and Thomas Rinks alleged Taco Bell failed to pay them for use of the Chihuahua character they created. The men alleged that Taco Bell had breached payment on a contract after they worked with the restaurant chain for a year to develop the talking Chihuahua for use in marketing. The talking Chihuahua became a hit with the first advertisement, in which the character bypasses a female Chihuahua for a Taco Bell taco and declares: “Yo quiero Taco Bell.”
In commercials, the dog was made to speak through special effects. His advertising catch-phrase was “¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!”. There were thought to have been two equally valid translations for this Spanish phrase: “I want Taco Bell!” and “I love Taco Bell!” However, in the commercials, the subtitle “I want some Taco Bell” and did not acknowledge the dual meaning of this phrase because for it to have meant “I love Taco Bell” the phrase in spanish would have to have been “Yo quiero a Taco Bell” and the original phrase missed the preposition.