Before we discuss Chipotle Mexican Grill's controversial video "The Scarecrow," you should see it. Take a look and we'll reconvene below with the rest of our readers who've already watched it. (It runs 3:23.)
Now that we've all seen it, we can call this meeting to order.
The ad, which has been watched more than 6 million times on YouTube, has drawn all kinds of comment, pro and con. Elizabeth Weiss, who blogged on it for The New Yorker, does a nice job of collecting some of the most interesting posts. Matthew Yglesias, the economics columnist at Slate, says the video is "just great, both on a musical and an animation level" and praises Chipotle as a marketing innovator. Carey Polis at The Huffington Post writes, "Way to pull on our heartstrings, Chipotle," and calls the ad both haunting and heavy-handed.
Diana Pritchard, a Michigan hog farmer who blogs at righteousbacon.com, writes that she was a professed lover of Chipotle until she saw the ad. She was evidently stunned to reach the conclusion that "Chipotle’s number one priority is to sell burritos by whatever means necessary." David Sirota at Salon blasts the ad for confusing its anti-factory-farming message with an anti-meat message, in a way that dupes viewers into thinking that Chipotle is against meat-eating when it isn't.
Weiss herself can't seem to decide whether she likes the ad or not. She notes Chipotle's "genuine commitment to sustainability," and reports that it began using sustainably raised ingredients about twelve years ago. She goes on to say that it uses only hogs raised without antibiotics on open pasture, that it uses antibiotic-free chickens and uses cattle that are "feedlot finished," meaning they are pasture-fed for most of their lives and fed grain only before slaughter. Then she undermines her praise by noting that Chipotle defines its own standards, and consumers have to trust it to police itself. This is a problem; but it's one that Chipotle shares with the entire food industry.
I found the ad captivating, and I said so on Facebook, where I first saw a link to it. I can't quite place the scarecrow, created by Moonbot Studios of Shreveport, Louisiana, but I could swear I've seen him–or a character very much like him–somewhere before. Perhaps in the work of Tim Burton? David Ropeik, much of whose reporting focuses on distinguishing between real risks and perceived risks, took me to task in a Facebook comment. He called the ad "a phenomenally well-done paean to the naiveté of a simplistic 'Natural v. Industrial' emotion that fuels so much science denialism on the left…this is Greenwash."
Well, yes. I confessed my emotional reaction to the video. I'm a fan of animation, anything from the 1929 Disney short The Skeleton Dance to the complete works of Hayao Miyazaki. I thought the images were wonderful, as was the soundtrack, an ethereal cover of Pure Imagination by Fiona Apple.
Now that we've set that aside, what about the content?
The message is simple: Factory farming, with its often execrable treatment of animals, is bad. It's about as simple as that. Factory farming makes me uncomfortable, and I like to be reminded that I should be using my food dollars to vote for more humane and sustainable food production. Furthermore, if the ad encourages people to eat less meat, that's a public-health message I can get behind. As some critics said, that's an odd message from a company that sells meat, but that's Chipotle's problem, not ours.
Those, however, are just my personal opinions. As Weiss writes, Chipotle seems to be sincere in its efforts to find sustainable and humane sources for its products. And even if we have to rely on Chipotle to police itself, isn't that a message we would like to hear? Where is the greenwashing in encouraging people to choose sustainable agriculture and to eat less meat?
The root of much of the criticism, it seems to me, is that people are shocked, shocked that Chipotle would advocate sustainable farming, family farms, and greenmarkets when it is nothing more than a big corporation selling burritos by any means necessary!
If Chipotle is sincere in trying to use its leverage to promote better agricultural practices, there is no greenwashing here; it is pursuing the course promoted in the video. If it is lying about that, then it is not only guilty of deception, but possibly crimes.
But let's not be shocked by Chipotle's eagerness to sell its burritos. It's a public corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and it's trading around 419 as I write this, close to its 52-week high. It has a market cap of almost $13 billion and a P/E of just over 44.
If Chipotle is pushing sustainable agriculture over less desirable practices, let's take it. Would we feel warmer about the burrito-industrial complex if Chipotle promoted ruthless slaughter?
The last time we had this kind of discussion about agriculture was in July, when Amy Harmon wrote a front-page story for The New York Times that addressed the potential benefits of genetically altered crops. Chipotle's marketers and strategists are not journalists in any sense of the word, but they've certainly provoked a lot of discussion. And that has given us another opportunity to come back at these issues–an opportunity we shouldn't ignore.
-Paul Raeburn
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