Social Media Influencers' Mixed Opinions on Taco Shells Leave Consumers Adrift

With social media assuming a larger role in shaping the way consumers feel about everything from the brand of sneakers they wear to the restaurants they used to think they liked, people can usually rest assured that online influencers will steer them in the right direction when it comes to what to spend their money on.

Disturbingly, however, this isn't always the case.

For years, Taco Tuesday has been a tradition in Jennifer Harper's house, and during most of that time she would buy whichever brand of taco shell that happened to be on sale to fill with beef, lettuce and cheddar cheese for her husband Michael and two sons Winnepeg and Denise.

That is, until she discovered social media.

"I couldn't remember which one I liked better, Ortega or Old El Paso, so I went on Instagram to see what people were saying. But that's when my head really started to spin!" Harper said, recalling the episode that left her stranded in the ethnic foods aisle of an Albertson's grocery store for over twenty minutes.

"One taco shell influencer, Taco Teddy, swore by Ortega; but another, Cathy Caliente, said that Old El Paso were better. And it only went on from there - where one would say Ortega and the next Old El Paso. Dios mio!"

Harper, whose taco shell dilemma would shortly be eclipsed by an even larger Pace Picante vs. La Victoria jarred salsa predicament, couldn't think of a solution to the problem of contradictory influencers.

"I don't know," she said. "Maybe I could google it."