Chipotle Mexican Grill has striven to diversify itself as a more health-conscious beacon within the fast food industry. Chipotle’s newest ad, “The Scarecrow” is no exception to this branding strategy and has been widely touted as an advertising success.

The ad’s transparency regarding GMOs and animal cruelty, by virtue of its unexpected honesty, manages to somewhat atone for these cardinal sins of the fast food industry. However, while the ad may be effective, it’s not entirely honest. Through stunning animation, “The Scarecrow” is able to temporarily distract us and quickly change the focus of its message from “let’s treat animals ethically” to “well, vegetables can’t feel any pain”. The Canadian Marketing Association prohibits such unethical ‘bait-and-switch’ advertising tactics, stating “Marketers must not engage in marketing communications in the guise of one purpose when the intent is a different purpose” (I.51: Disguise). Look again; no meat appears in the second part of the ad! Claudia Pisarek echoes this sentiment of fast food deception in her own blog, stating how establishments like McDonald’s swap out their sumptuous poster burgers for something much less picturesque in the wrapper.

In my opinion, Chipotle’s offence is that it is attributing itself with all the positives of a vegetarian establishment, without actually doing anything. “The Scarecrow” does little to inspire change in meat production, yet to its credit, offers an honest alternative. However, Chipotle itself does not offer that same honest alternative, at least not in conjunction with this ad. Without the implementation of more vegetarian options on its menu, or at the very least, a reduction in the number of meat options, Chipotle is acting both unethically and deceptively – though its ad is really, very pretty.

Sources:
http://www.the-cma.org/regulatory/code-of-ethics
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/09/okay-that-chipotle-ad-is-amazingbut-its-also-not-honest/
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/caa-marketing-discusses-chipotles-new-fiona-apple-animation-152512