Chipotle’s Scarecrow Strategy

This week at Agency Fusion, we took a quick break from checking out the latest technology and design trends to discuss Chipotle’s Scarecrow video.

Now, there are already dozens of articles floating around the internet about this commercial, but what we wanted to discuss wasn’t the possible exploitative nature of the ad, or the beautiful art in the video. We wanted to talk about Chipotle’s messaging tactic. Chipotle isn’t beating you over the head with the message they want you to hear (we’ll let you decide just what the message really is), but instead they’re using animation, symbolism, emotion, music, and a moving storyline to very gently nudge you toward certain perceptions about their brand. You, the viewer, are the one who has to form those perceptions since Chipotle is only suggesting them.

If your brand is the best at something, don’t say you’re the best. Do something that causes the reader/viewer/customer to arrive at that conclusion on their own.