Agricultural News
Noble Foundation President Calls Chipotle Scarecrow Video a 'Horrifying Misrepresentation'
Fri, 18 Oct 2013 11:40:49 CDT
A marketing video made to solidify an image of Chipotle Mexican Grill's fare as a more healthful alternative to other restaurants' offerings has turned a lot of eyes--and heads--in the marketing world. Since its release September 11, the online video has garnered over seven million views and generated untold miles of column inches in marketing publications and blogs worldwide. The video has received rave reviews, it seems, from everyone except those who know anything about agriculture and food production.
The following editorial is written by Bill Buckner, president and CEO of the Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma. He examines the video through the eyes of agricultural producers:
By now, almost everyone has seen the Chipotle Mexican Grill commercial.
You know, the one with a sad scarecrow in a dystopian future rebelling against mass processed food by opening his own wholesome "Chipotle" style stand, all while Fiona Apple mournfully croons "Pure Imagination" in the background.
This is supposed to be Chipotle's profound statement about today's food production and big agriculture.
It's not.
It is strategic marketing gone awry. It is irresponsible and baseless. And it is mostly about making money for a business that requires a steady stream of customers. Let's not forget the reason they're playing Tchaikovsky on the viewers' heartstrings is to sell more burritos.
More than 30 years ago, I worked in retail sales. The lessons I learned in marketing are as true today as they were then: 1) Know your audience; 2) Gain attention for your products; 3) Highlight what you do best; and 4) Sell. Sell. Sell.
Chipotle is capitalizing on our society's growing association of farm products popularly labeled "free-range," "organic" and "all natural" as healthier. So in leveraging this easy target, they laid waste to the facts.
Six million YouTube views and a tsunami of free publicity later (worth millions of dollars), you have yourself a successful advertising campaign, a dangerous, reckless advertising campaign. I wish I could just walk away and say: "This is merely a cartoon, and everyone clearly sees it as the shallow ploy that it is."
But reading the comments on this video, I can't. It worked. It gained excessive attention. Those people who are separated from the source of their meals and food are buying into these messages. Blindly, they accept that this is how their food is produced.
The commercial shows cattle and pigs on factory conveyor belts being liquefied and served to children. Another shot shows a chicken being plunged with a caulk-gun-sized syringe that inflates its size. Dairy cows, with sad puppy dog eyes, are milked in metal boxes in a dark factory.
This horrifying misrepresentation will permanently shape perceptions about agriculture for those who have little connection to their food. They will believe this is how their food is made. They will never know the pride, skill and endless effort our agricultural producers demonstrate every day to produce the highest quality and safest food supply in the world.
And, of course, the company's solution to this contrived problem is the individual garden of the oppressed scarecrow. From which a burrito empire can be created.
Instead of an honest dialogue about food production, this video opted for a scorched earth approach. Facts about food production be damned. They demonized all producers, large and small, and related entities that work to feed us. They tore down agriculture just to build up their own image.
We - as a society - have to arrive at this conclusion: there is room at the table for all types of agriculture in this world. In fact, we're going to need anyone willing to pick up a shovel to feed the burgeoning global population. We have to stop throwing elbows at each other and work together.
Here's the bottom line: The ad is a gross overreach. It's a perversion of fact. And it's damaging. But it is dang good marketing, and it will probably make them more money.
Sad.
They've traded in a chance to discuss the real issues surrounding agriculture - lack of research funding, aging producer population and tighter government restrictions - for a cheap buck.
Sounds like something a big company would do. Maybe we should make a commercial about that. I wonder if Fiona Apple is available for the soundtrack?
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