Back to the Start: Chipotle's Campaign

 Back to the Start: Chipotle’s Campaign 

“Turn on the Grammy’s, quickly!” urged my friend eagerly. I rolled my eyes, but clicked the television on all the same. I do not particularly care for today’s pop music, but I simply could not shake the feeling that if I chose not to watch the ceremony, I would be missing something crucial. As it turns out, I was right. I could not have cared less that Adele took home six Grammy awards or that Niki Minaj performed beyond her normal level of eccentricity. What caught and held my attention was a commercial. A Chipotle commercial, to be exact. It popped onto to the television and somehow managed to quiet a room full of college-aged girls. It wiped the smiles from our faces, it faded our laugher, and, most of all, it made us think. How could a commercial for a burrito restaurant possibly impact someone so strongly? The force at work in this advertisement is rhetoric. Chipotle cleverly appeals to the heart, using pathos to capture their audience in a tearjerking grip. The commercial is entirely based on emotion with a total lack of logical and factual evidence. That being said, it is truly one of the most effective commercials to air on television. For this reason, I pay it tribute with an analysis of all its clever tricks and appeals.  

The commercial opens with an animation of a farmer and his family, including a baby boy. The sun is shining brightly, the farmer’s head is held high, and the world looks opportunistic. Then, the melancholy melody of Coldplay’s “The Scientist” (performed acoustically by Willie Nelson in this particular version) begins to play as the camera slides forward, panning over the farm. At first, the animals on the farm are ranging in open pastures. Then, a few of them are penned in. Before long, they are all locked within a metal warehouse and pumped full of antibiotics. Without having realized it, the once hopeful farmer has become a puppet of industry. That is, until he decides “to go back to the start”. He then tears down his warehouses and frees his animals. The farmer is now an old man and his son is grown. The camera continues to move forward until the audience is able to see a Chipotle truck being loaded with organic products. Again, the camera continues to move forward, implying a generational cycle of sustainable farming. The entire advertisement is more of a short film, documenting this farmer’s life. All in all, it is a genius piece of commercialism. 

The persuasive appeals in this commercial are one-hundred percent emotional. Chipotle does not use any logical or well-reasoned arguments to capture their viewers. Instead, this Mexican fast-food chain uses pathos. The cuteness of the animation is the first thing to tug at the viewers’ heartstrings. For instance, the model pigs are absolutely adorable compared to the reality of the dirt-loving, feces covered animals one typically sees on a farm. Even once the pigs have been injected with steroids and antibiotics in the commercial, they are pictured as cute, round blobs. In reality, pigs raised in confinement are a terrible sight to see. Hogs bred indoors rarely see the light of day, if ever. They are imprisoned in small spaces with not even enough room to turn around. This leads to the development of diseases such as pneumonia and aggressive behaviors such as cannibalism. Thus, in reality, these animals are not healthy looking piglets, but sickly looking creatures who have been deprived of a humane life. In many respects, the Chipotle advertisement acts as a euphemism for the harsh reality of industrial farming. It causes the viewer to think about the horrors of animal confinement without using the scare tactics other organizations such as PETA utilize. The haunting music is the second aspect of the commercial that appeals to the viewer emotionally. The lyrics aptly apply to the situation being portrayed in the animation. For example, one of the lines Willie Nelson sings is “questions of science and progress don’t speak as loud as my heart.” This line is heard as the camera pans over the factory and follows the farmer on his soul-searching walk one brisk winter night. This is when the farmer’s morals end up conquering the science of unethical, new-age farming.  The song’s tone is not upbeat or happy, but somber and pensive. It creates a contemplative mood, which provokes the audience to question themselves on the ethicality of meat consumption. Is the meat that I eat raised humanely? How can I help? The lyric “nobody said it was easy” implies that Chipotle is a hard-working company going out of its way to be more ethical. This lyrical line hints that the company is making sacrifices to return to local, sustainable farming. Such strong moral dedication is a characteristic many consumers are likely to appreciate, regardless of whether or not it is really true. Lastly, the family motif conveyed throughout the commercial is highly appealing to the audience’s emotion. At the start of the ad, the viewer sees a young farming family with a new baby boy. The father simply wants to do his best to provide for the family, so he opens his farm to industry. As the farmer grows older, his industry spirals out of control until he decides to go back to the old way of agricultural production. By this point, he is an old man, but the camera shifts and shows the farmer’s son as a grown adult, ready to carry on his father’s sustainable lifestyle. The family motif is subtle, but it is certainly present. Just as politicians spend money to produce advertisements showing themselves as being family oriented, Chipotle adds this family characteristic to their commercial in order to create a sense of safety, tradition, and acceptability. Besides the obvious lovability of the animation, Chipotle uses a variety of subtle tactics to cut to the very heart of their audience. What is even more impressive is the way in which they organize these strategies to maximize their effectiveness. 

The organizational and visual components of this commercial significantly add to the success of the emotional appeal the company uses to grip its audience. For example, as previously mentioned, the family motif is effective in creating a sense of tradition and stability. What makes this motif so successful though, is the continuous development and maturation of the family unit. The camera never stops throughout the advertisement. It is continuously moving forward and shows the family growing over time. This implies that Chipotle is making a generational impact that will benefit consumers for years to come. The way the seasons are used in this commercial is also quite interesting. It begins in the summer, full of hope and life. Then it moves to fall, where things begin to deteriorate. Eventually, winter arrives and the farmer finds himself in crisis. Suddenly, spring explodes and the farmer revolutionizes his way of life. Because there are no words in this commercial besides the lyrics of the song, the changing seasons help convey meaning and mood. The lack of dialogue in the commercial keeps the audience curious, especially since no company label is presented until the very end of the advertisement. When the Chipotle ad appeared on television while watching the Grammy awards, my friends and I were extremely puzzled as to what it could be a commercial for. We guessed it could be for the Environmental Protection Agency and even PETA, but not once did we predict this would be a commercial for a fast food industry. It surprised and amazed us. The lack of dialogue kept us curious until the very last second and we agreed that the exclusion of words made the commercial more bold. Finally, the visual of the closing scene is quite resonating. A Chipotle trucks pulls up, but it is drastically different from the  industrial trucks which have been pictured previously in the ad. Instead, it is a small and friendly looking vehicle, giving the impression that it is off to a local market. This is the first time there are any written words. They read, “Cultivate a Better World”, suggesting that Chipotle is on a global campaign to support sustainability. Lastly, the ad directs you to the Chipotle website where you can explore more about their movement and, of course, donate money. 

  “Over the last several years, Chipotle Mexican Grill has contributed more than $2 million to help fund initiatives that support sustainable agriculture,” reads the restaurant’s website (Cultivation Foundation). Is this really enough to go on a global campaign for environmentally friendly and ethical farming? The reality is, probably not. Penn State raised over $10 million in a matter of months for pediatric cancer, yet this enormous chain restaurant could hardly provide $3 million for initiative programs for sustainable farming. Their commercial is a touching one with a good message. Regardless, the truth is that there are no statistics, real pictures, or honest stories presented to the consumer audience throughout the entire advertisement. I commend Chipotle for making a larger effort than most companies to promote high quality ingredients, but at the end of the day, they are still a fast food chain with the ultimate goal of making profit.