CHIPOTLE | CULTIVATE CAMPAIGN (Back to the Start) | 2012
Fast food took a swing at fast food / CHIPOTLE "CULTIVATE CAMPAIGN"
A fast food chain made an animated short attacking factory farming. The product never once appears on screen. And it still won two Grand Prix at Cannes. That's almost too bold to believe.
The problem
In 2010, Chipotle was facing criticism over how it sourced its ingredients. The brand had always stood for "food with integrity," but as it grew, doubts about its supply chain kept growing too. Things weren't working out with its fifth agency either, so CMO Mark Crumpacker reached out to CAA Marketing.
The insight
The first thing they built was a loyalty program called Farm Team, which rewarded people not for buying food but for learning about where it came from. What came next was the need for one single statement that could capture the brand's core. The idea was sparked by a farmer's story about his pigs catching an antibiotic-resistant infection. From that came a story about a family farm turning into a factory farm, then finding its way back to where it started.
The idea
The result was "Back to the Start," a stop-motion film directed by London-based director Johnny Kelly. A small family farm slowly transforms over time into a massive factory that pollutes the river, until the farmer, weighed down by guilt, returns to his original way of farming. The whole thing plays out in one long continuous pan shot. The soundtrack is Willie Nelson's cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist." Nelson has long been an advocate for family farmers, so the choice wasn't random.
What happened
The film was released on YouTube in 2011 with no paid media behind it. It spread purely through social media, and by the 2012 Grammys it had become Chipotle's first-ever national TV broadcast. It racked up 6.5 million views, and Willie Nelson's version of "The Scientist" hit number one on the iTunes country chart. That same year at Cannes Lions, it won Grand Prix in both the Film category and the newly created Branded Content & Entertainment category. There's also a story that the day after it aired, McDonald's ended a practice involving confined pig farming.
Afterthought
No product shown, no sales pitch made, just a vision of "cultivating a better world," told in 2 minutes and 20 seconds. CMO Crumpacker later said that the campaign gave the brand both strength and real affection from people. Advertising can save a brand. I want to believe that. I do believe it.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2012
