We wrote a quick post at EOD yesterday arguing that now might just be the time for Chipotle to partner with a creative agency again for a comeback campaign.
And wouldn’t you know it, the chain that told the world it didn’t need a creative AOR decided to absolutely NOT take our advice because its marketing team was months ahead of us, durrr.
Chipotle went with CAA rather than a “traditional” agency for the third animated film in the series that started with Willie Nelson covering Coldplay to promote the company’s earthbound ethos. It’s pretty much what you would expect: a sappy, faux-Pixar tale illustrating a love story between two cutthroat capitalists set to a folk-rock cover of the Backstreet Boys(?!).
We get it: artificial ingredients are (literally) evil. But competition and business innovation are good … until they lead you away from your founding vision and your original product: straight-up no bullshit orange juice.
This is all very much in keeping with Chipotle’s long-running strategy, but how will it land with the perpetually bored, easily frightened American consumer?
Our colleagues speculate today that the ad trilogy amounts to a cry for help from a company lost in its own marketing maze, and this narrative makes some sense. But the things that have distracted Chipotle from its core philosophy have not been fake colors and flavors or movie tie-in campaigns or a pressure to compete more directly with the old-school chains it had previously left in the dust. They were incidents that largely occurred outside the company’s control, and they weren’t exactly shocking: food naturally collects bacteria. Marketing executives naturally turn to drugs to escape stressful professional lives.
We’re not sure that this campaign will be able to move attention away from the “scandals” and back to the food. On a consumer level, this blogger loves Chipotle but can’t remember the last time he ate there—and therein lies the problem.
CREDITS
CLIENT Chipotle
TITLE A Love Story
AGENCY CAA Marketing
AGENCY PRODUCER CAA
AGENCY CREATIVES CAA
PRODUCTION COMPANY Passion
DIRECTOR Saschka Unseld
ANIMATION DIRECTOR Saschka Unseld
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Debbie Crosscup/Ryan Goodwin-Smith
HEAD OF PRODUCTION Mike Turoff
PRODUCER Sibylle Preuss
PITCH PRODUCER Greg Babuik
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Kirsty Ratcliffe/ Paige Sullivan
CG COORDINATORS Joost Zoetebier/ Suzanne Forward
HEAD OF CG Jason Nicholas
VFX SUPERVISOR Neil Riley
CG SUPERVISOR Christian Mills
ART DIRECTION Katy Wu
CHARACTER DESIGN Katy Wu/Amandine Pecharman
PRODUCTION DESIGN Katy Wu /Amandine Pecharman/ Eastwood Wong/ Marceline Tanguay
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Davide Saraceno
MATTE PAINTER Daniel Lambert
CG DESIGN DEVELOPMENT Alex Holman/ Christian Mills/ David Watson/Steven Riley
STORYBOARD Emmeline Coats/ Matt Howard
PREVIZ Adam Burke/ Wesley Coman/ Paul Cousins/ Xavier Zahra/ Aldo Gagliardi/Chris Welsby
EDITOR Fabian Peters
ASSISTANT EDITORS Dan Knight/ Tim King/ Kingsley Bailey
LAYOUT Artur Margive / Jason Nicholas/ Conor Ryan / Sara Diaz
MODELLING Mattias Bjurdstrom / Florence Ciuccoli
CHARACTER
MODELLING Ian Brown/ Sara Diaz/ Tom Bryant/ Roxanne Martinez/ Stuart Hall
ENVIRONMENT
TEXTURING + SHADING Ian Matthews / Katreena Erin Bowell/ David Domingo Jimenez / Leigh Van Der Byl/ Louise Chassain / Sara Diaz / Stuart Hall/ Arkin Esfref / Alex Holman / David Watson/ Leigh van der Byl/ Camille Perrin/ Patrick Kraft/ Roxanne Martinez
RIGGING Morgan Evans / Matteo Nibbi / Giulia Dell’Armi
ANIMATION SUPERVISOR Jason Boose
ANIMATION Wesley Coman/ Chris Welsby/ Aldo Gagliardi/ Cath Brooks/ Catherine Elvidge/ Karin Matteson/ Scott Bono
SECONDARY ANIMATION Pinky Ng
2D ANIMATION Reuben McNaughton/ Edward Bulmer/ John Taylor
VFX Jamie Franks / Colin Perrett/ Kwai Keung IP/ Junaid Syed/ Antonios Deftarios/ Guillaume Zaouche/ Gabriele Veronese/ Matt Moyes/ Robin Nordenstein/ Alice Jarre
LIGHTING & RENDERING Christian Mills/ Richard Moss / Stuart Hall / Adrian Russell/ Patrick Kraftt/ Alex Holman/ Roxanne Martinez/ David Watson/ Nikolay Kulishev/ Simon Maddocks/ Francois Pons
COMPOSITING Johnny Still/ Andre Bittencourt/ Raphael Theolade/ Valeria Romano/ Javier Cid/ Alex Grey/ Reuben McNaughton
POST PRODUCTION SERVICES Technicolor Postworks NY
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Clark Henderson
POST PRODUCER Anthony LaGrega
COLOURIST Max Horton
ASSISTANT COLOURIST Katy Gilmore
SOUND EDITING Oisin Lunny
PASSION PIPELINE TD’S Jason Nicholas / Javier Edo Meseguer/ Sajjad Amjad/ Morgan Evans
IT SUPPORT/ Alex Pittas/ Emanuele Tatti/ Tomas Baltusis/ Daffer Al-Faiadh
ENGINEERING TEAM
FINANCE & ACCOUNTING Robert Stannett/ Kendrah Matthews/ Grant Harris/ Eliar-Robinson Jamalfar/ Kathryn Greenwood
RUNNERS Nastassja Simensky/ Sophia Simensky/ Jake Parker/ Delphi Lythgoe/ Chris Mann/ Milo Edwards/ David Renton/ Ella Sando/ Chloe Smith
ASSISTANTS Nina Rosner/ Becky Perryman/ Ronnie Mitchell/ Tom Chetwode-Barton/ Saskia Burke/ Jamie Moller/ Shane Noonan/ Carolyn Figel
POST-PRODUCTION SOUND SERVICES Skywalker Sound, a Lucasfilm Ltd. Company
SOUND DESIGN/ Tom Myers
RE-RECORDING MIXER
SOUND EFFECTS EDITOR/FOLEY EDITOR Qianbaihui Yang
ASSISTANT SOUND EFFECTS EDITOR Anthony DeFrancesco
FOLEY ARTIST John Roesch
FOLEY MIXER Scott Curits
ASSISTANT RE-RECORDING MIXER Dustin Capulong
ENGINEERING SERVICES Scott Brewer
DIGITAL EDITORIAL SUPPORT Danny Caccao
AUDIO/VIDEO TRANSFER Marco Alicea
POST-PRODUCTION SOUND ACCOUNTANT Cathy Shirk
CLIENT SERVICES Eva Prter
SCHEDULING Carrie Perry
SKYWALKER SOUND EXECUTIVE STAFF
GENERAL MANAGER Josh Lowden
HEAD OF PRODUCTION Jon Null
HEAD OF ENGINEERING Steve Morris
MUSIC “I Want It That Way”
SONG WRITER Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson
PUBLISHER Kobalt Music Publishing America, Inc.
PRODUCER Blake Mills
CONDUCTOR,ARRANGEMENTS & ORCHESTRATIONS Gabriel Kahane
SINGER Jim James
SINGER Brittany Howard
SESSION PLAYER Pino Palladino (Bass)
SESSION PLAYER Chris Dave (Drums)
SESSION PLAYER Blake Mills (Guitar)
VIOLIN l Jesse Mills, concertmaster
VIOLIN l Colin Jacobsen
VIOLIN l Emily Smith
VIOLIN l Amy Schroeder
VIOLIN ll Alex Fortes
VIOLIN ll Keats Dieffenbach
VIOLIN ll Keiko Tokunaga
VIOLIN ll Ben Russell
VIOLA Nathan Schram
VIOLA Isabel Hagen
VIOLA Christina Courtin
VIOLA Mario Gotoh
CELLO Andrea Lee
CELLO Eric Jacobsen
HORNS Tom Bergeron, trumpet
HORNS Brandon Ridenour, trumpet
HORNS Mike Atkinson, horn
HORNS Tim Albright, trombone
HORNS Marcus Rojas, tuba
ENGINEER & MIXER Greg Koller
ASSISTANT ENGINEER Joseph Lorge
EAST WEST STUDIO ENGINEER Brendan Dekora
DiMENNA CENTER ENGINEER Alex Venguer