Chipotle Satire

In the early 2010’s fast food, with health twists was popular. The population was becoming more worried and conscience about what they fed themselves and their families, and this, combined with the always-busy, modern-day society in need of quick meals, gives an opening for fast-food restaurants like Taco Time, Chipotle, and Taco Del Mar to spot light their greasy-burger-free, and sometimes organic, menus.

In 2010 Chipotle released a commercial called “Scarecrow” showing an animated scarecrow witnessing the cruelness and fraud and of big food corporations, and then starting his own organic restaurant, which the audience assumes is Chipotle; all to the tune of “Pure Imagination” covered by Fiona Apple. Funny or Die, a well known comedy web site, made a satire of Chipotle’s “Scarecrow”, called “Honest Scarecrow”, which changed the lyrics and added other words, images, and sounds in order to mock Chipotle’s, and other restaurants’, emotional and exaggerated way of advertising.

“Honest Scarecrow” by Funny or Die, released in 2013, convinces fast-food consumers, to not let ads determine where we eat, because ads can be misleading and can play on emotions. Funny or Die uses ridicule to point out how hyperbolic and fooling the animation is in the Chipotle commercial. For example, in the original commercial, the animated scarecrow happily chops up some peppers, and makes a Chipotle bowl for a customer. The audience finds this cute, and begins to see Chipotle as a nicer and healthier institution.

Anyone that knows of Chipotle knows they use meat, yet vegetables have a healthier image to the consumer. The audience will laugh, yet deep down they’ll feel Chipotle, and other fast food restaurants have attempted to delude them. This will make them feel a kind of mistrust towards food ads, accomplishing Funny or Dies goal of making the audience not choose their food just because of ads. Funny or Die also uses sounds and imagery that are associated with brain washing in horror films to persuade fast food consumers who have seen the original “Scarecrow” ad to base their decision of where to eat not only on ads.

In the original commercial Chipotle shows the scarecrow grabbing a pepper, to connect the beginning of the scarecrow’s healthy restaurant to their logo, also a pepper, in the audience’s subconscious. Funny or die edits the ad by adding in screeching guitar noises, and has the Chipotle logo flash on screen occasionally. The sounds and imagery combine makes this seem like something straight out of a horror movie, from a scene where the TV scarily goes haywire. This creates a relatable humor, yet it also seriously points out what Chipotle is actually doing.

Another tactic used by Funny or Die to persuade fast-food consumers who have seen the original commercial to not let ad’s control where you eat, is hyperbole of the (already hyperbolized) emotional images in “Scarecrow” with words and lyrics. In the original commercial, the scarecrow peeks behind an ad for the evil “Crow Foods” company, and sees an adorable and innocent little cow, strapped up to a merciless milking machine, looking up at him with un wavering puppy dog eyes. Funny or die takes this and exaggerates Chipotle’s attempt to get sympathy and sadness from the audience.

The audience, again feels like the victim of a giant corporation trying to fool them, or even brainwash them, and definitely wont let ads decide where they eat. In 2013, Funny or Die released a video called “Honest scarecrow” ( a satire of “Scarecrow” by Chipotle) to sway fast-food consumers, who have seen the original commercial to not let ads determine where we eat, because ads can be misleading and can play on emotions, with ridicule, hyperbole, sounds, words, and lyrics.