Back to the Start
A farmer, a factory, and a change of heart — in stop-motion.
The insight
People are quietly uneasy about where their food comes from — factory farms, additives, the whole machine. But no fast-food brand had the standing to raise it, and a lecture about factory farming is the fastest way to make everyone look away.
The idea
Tell it as a wordless stop-motion fable. A farmer slowly industrialises his little farm into a grim animal factory, has a change of heart, and returns to raising things the honest way — all scored to Willie Nelson covering Coldplay's "The Scientist." There's no burrito until the very last frame. It's not an ad for food; it's a two-minute film about a value.
How it works
The craft carries the message past your defences: exquisite model animation and a heart-cracking country cover make a preachy subject genuinely moving. By dramatising a belief — real food, done right — instead of selling a product, Chipotle became a brand that stood for something. It ran as a paid TV spot by popular demand and reset how the whole category thought about purpose.
The Stupid/Smart of it
Stupid: a fast-food chain runs a two-minute animated art film about the horrors of industrial agriculture — and barely mentions itself.
Smart: dramatising a value instead of selling a burrito earns belief, and the restraint (no product) is exactly what makes it credible rather than preachy.
Why we love it
It made you feel something real about where your food comes from — with a pig puppet and a Willie Nelson cover — and trusted the story to do the selling. Stand for something, and let the product wait.
Awards
Two Cannes Grand Prix, 2012
Who made it
Client: Chipotle Mexican Grill
Agency: CAA Marketing
Director: Johnny Kelly · Animation: Nexus Studios
Music: Willie Nelson, "The Scientist" (a Coldplay cover)
Sources: Ad Age · Nexus Studios · Fast Company
← The Banger Blog