A couple years ago Chipotle came out with an ad promoting their commitment to using only humanely raised meat products. The Willie Nelson cover of the Cold Play tune The Scientist was pure Willie (love it or hate it). Now they have just released another. Check it out here. Apparently, it’s a tie-in to a video game for IPhones.

Both of these are ambitious and very well done. They are on the sentimental side (the cows in the most recent ad look so sad), but I’m guessing they will prove pretty effective. Is Chipotle ahead of the curve on this one? Are any readers more inclined to go to Chipotle because of this stance?

h/t Peter Forbes

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Mark T. Mitchell
Mark T. Mitchell is the co-founder of Front Porch Republic. He is the Dean of Academic Affairs at Patrick Henry College and the author of several books including Plutocratic Socialism, Power and Purity, The Limits of Liberalism, The Politics of Gratitude, and Localism in Mass Age: A Front Porch Republic Manifesto (co-editor).

6 COMMENTS

  1. Not more inclined, but they’re pretty good food anyway; it’s not hard to eat healthier there. As far as humane, some of their stuff is a stretch, or vaguely / non-committally worded (“where possible”) but it’s better than nothing, I guess.

  2. We don’t have a Chipotle near us. The ads are interesting and affecting. Thanks for calling our attention to them.

  3. They were not on my radar before, but they’ve definitely got my attention now. Very effective advertising. The issue of a corrupted and anti-nature food supply needs to come out of the dark.

  4. I really like the video. I hope lots of people who see will take the path of the scarecrow, or least will choose to avoid industrial food. I’m glad they made the film, but it doesn’t make me want to buy food from Chipolte. I swore off fast food long ago. But I suppose if I was desperate for something to eat and had no option other than fast food, I’d choose them over their competitors. Hopefully I’ll never have to make that choice.

  5. When that Willie/Coldplay commercial hit the web a few years ago it hit me right square in the gut. The sentimentality hooked me at first and then kind of made me mad.

    We were living in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia at the time, and a few months after seeing the video we went to the local Chipotle, and I was surprised/delighted to see they were sourcing their pork from nearby Polyface Farms, home of farmer-activist Joe Salatin.

    Well…it was amazing.

    So I’m cautiously optimistic that they can start affecting change at their scale, but I certainly want to see more small-scale, regional, and local systemic changes made as well. (This recent interview w/ Mary Berry, for instance, is very important in this regard: http://inthesetimes.com/article/15623/where_farmers_markets_and_csas_fall_short/)

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