Chipotle’s newest ad for a food-themed game, The Scarecrow, has made huge waves in the marketing and fast food industries. Sparking controversy and intelligent conversation about Big Agriculture, The Scarecrow also raises questions about whether this kind of emotional marketing is effective.
But ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether viewers love, hate, swear by or swear at the video. It’s publicity that Chipotle was working for. And they got it.
The video has more than six million views on YouTube and 41,000 likes. With good reason: the beautiful animation, Fiona Apple’s haunting rendition of the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory song “Pure Imagination,” and the warning against drastic automation of food production. The video, more narrative than advertisement, seems closer to a Pixar digital short than something you’d see in the Super Bowl commercial lineup. Add to that the intense emotional message, and the video passes the marketing sniff test— it’s not blatantly promotional and is actually enjoyable.
However, the backlash about this video has been widespread. From charges that it lacks “brain” and rejects technology to the claim that it’s just all around preposterous, various corners of Internet haven’t been silent about this campaign. It’s also been called propaganda, and as a marketing campaign that just won’t work since it fails to fully integrate the brand.
This provocation and lack of total branding has been intentional. Mark Crumpacker, CMO at Chipotle, commented that Millennials are “skeptical of brands that perpetuate themselves.”. And yet the media still criticizes this non-branded approach.
Wait. By criticizing and talking about the video, the media is helping Chipotle do what it knew it could not do: promote Chipotle. Even the Funny or Die parody of this video highlights the brand. Chipotle has also been mentioned on Mashable, Huffington Post and Co.Exist among many other news sites and blogs. Talk about coverage.
This ad has reached out to Millennials on many levels, just the way Chipotle intended; it reaches business-savvy Millennials as well as the environmentally-conscious ones. It reaches the artsy crowd and it reaches the tech crowd. The marketing minds eat up the controversy surrounding it and delve into analysis simply for the fun of it.
Marketing to Millennials doesn’t involve running a 30-second TV commercial. It has fundamentally changed; if Chipotle were to stick with TV or radio spots, it would quickly drown in the noise. Millennials want meaning, entertainment, and information that is useful to them.
Chipotle has taken a calculated risk by putting themselves in the middle of a controversy. It has created quite the buzz. People who like the video will find themselves defending it and aligning themselves more closely with Chipotle. Even people who hate the video will be talking about it. The one thing that is certain is that Chipotle did something huge to contribute to the shake-up of marketing, and has quite possibly changed the world of burrito advertising as we know it.
