SEX, BOMBS & BURGERS

It seems like everyone is using social media, particularly Twitter, to promote something or other these days. See the recent, hilarious Old Spice Man phenomenon. Fast food restaurants are no different. A number of them are using Twitter not just to inform their customers about their food, but to bring their food to them.

The trend was started by Kogi Korean BBQ, a small company in Los Angeles. With its business consisting of a handful of mobile trucks, Kogi decided to to let customers know where they'd be. Now, they've got more than 68,000 followers and a website that displays the trucks' schedules and locations.

Not to be outdone, Taco Bell is doing the same thing. The chain has been fielding big purple trucks since the '90s, provides a new way of communicating just where the vehicles are going to be. The truck looks to be on its way to Dallas, where there is a shortage of street food.

Closer to home, here in Toronto we have Smoke's Poutinerie, purveyor of fine fries + gravy + cheese. Like Taco Bell, Smoke's aims for big events such as the recent Honda Indy, and to announce its presence.

I imagine it'll only be a matter of time before one of these chains incorporates GPS into a smartphone app that will let customers track them wherever they are, any time of day. Because when you need your tacos or poutine, you really need to know where it's at.

I, for one, am glad that technology is making this kind of stuff more accessible. I remember when I was a kid, I used to hope that the ice cream truck would come by after school. Some days he did, some days he didn't. It should would have saved me some childhood stress if I had known exactly where the hell the ice cream man was.