The encyclopedia · Marketing & Brand · Marketing decision · 2014
Chipotle's 'The Scarecrow' film attacked its own industry to sell 'food with integrity'
A 3-minute animated critique of factory farming, plus a game, made Chipotle's values the product.
Chipotle Mexican Grill
the move
Chipotle built its brand on 'food with integrity', but in a category filled with fast food, a claim about sourcing was easy to dismiss as marketing.
With Creative Artists Agency it made 'The Scarecrow', a 3-minute animated film showing an industrial food machine, and an app game where players helped the scarecrow and earned free food.
The film drew over 14 million YouTube views and the game was downloaded about 650,000 times, while the campaign sparked roughly 18.4 million conversations across 17 platforms.
why it works
- A critique of factory farming framed Chipotle's sourcing as the opposite of an abuse, so the brand's difference became a moral one.
- The animation and game let the message spread as entertainment rather than as a defensive corporate claim.
- Offering free food in the game connected the values story directly to a purchase incentive.
- Judges saw it as branding beyond the campaign, awarding it Best in Show for sustained brand building.
what transfers
When your differentiator is ethical, don't argue it; show the world you reject and let customers conclude the difference.
what came after
The Scarecrow won the Grand Prix in PR and a Gold Lion at Cannes Lions 2014, and helped establish short-film-plus-game storytelling as a way to build a values-led brand. It became a model for making a mission the ad itself.
references
- Inside the magic that made these 5 ads among the most effective digital campaigns of last year
- The Cannes Lion for PR Is Home at Last
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