Chipotle’s self-serving deception: A “vegetarian” bait-and-switch

[TalkingDog]

Disclaimer: I'm not a vegetarian/vegan. I have no issues with people who are. So: No dog in this fight. Just passing along an interesting deconstruction.

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/19/chipotles_self_serving_deception_a_vegetarian_bait_and_switch/singleton/


This is the point in the ad where things get really interesting. After his moment with the cow, the scarecrow heads home and discovers a solution — one that makes a very specific statement. Starting with one of Chipotle’s iconic peppers, he harvests his garden, but — importantly — we do not see him in an abattoir looking into the eyes of a terrified chicken or cow just before he kills it in a more natural fashion than Crow Industries. Instead, he heads into town with a truck that looks like it is exclusively full of vegetables. Then, save for a fleeting and blurry background glimpse of what may be a chicken in the kitchen (that the scarecrow is most certainly not cutting), we don’t see any prominent reference to a meat-based diet. He then he presents what could easily pass for a vegetarian dish.

In other words, his solution to the meat-producing factory farming system he hates is not just a meat-based system that slaughters animals in a more humane fashion — but a plant-based system that wholly avoids such slaughter. The contrast between the first and the second half of the ad is the story here. The first half is all about meat eating and animal killing, while the second half — the solution part — has nothing to do with meat eating and avoids blatant references to the act of killing animals.

Remember, the spot is set to a song by Fiona Apple, a vegan and animal rights activist. Considering that, and considering the spot’s clear anti-meat story line, it is revealing that most of the press surrounding the ad hasn’t even mentioned its vegetarian message. What that omission illustrates is that in a country where only 7 percent of people consider themselves vegetarians or vegans, many of the other 93 percent don’t even recognize legitimate criticism of meat consumption, even when that criticism is in their faces. The omission also probably exemplifies a larger “nah nah can’t hear you!” hostility toward any attempt to question meat consumption, whether those questions are about the morality of killing animals or simply about meat consumption’s effect on the environment, carbon emissions,energy supplies, water resources and public health.

[msongs]

1. it's just a big PR stunt - Chipotle serves thousands of hacked up animal parts every day nt

[riderinthestorm]

2. Yup. They do. nt

[djean111]

3. I didn't get any vegetarian vibe out of the ad at all. None.

I was thinking factory farm, pesticides, herbicides, GMO's, chickens and cattle stuffed with chemicals and drugs and living in tiny spaces.
I was not thinking oh, Fiona Apple vegetarian, I was thinking beautiful voice and song.
At the end I was thinking of farmer's markets and home gardens and such.
It never occurred to me to dissect the ad at all.

[mucifer]

4. Whether or not the ad was honest, it got more people discussing food choices and ethics .

[REP]

5. I didn't take the ad to be anti-meat but anti-factory farm

Frankly, Fiona Apple is off my radar; I hear her on the oldies station sometimes but I don't know or care about her politics. As for the ad; I'm well aware of factory farming practices, much as Perdue injecting flavorings into live chickens before they are slaughtered and the horrific conditions of feedlots; the Scarecrow's chickens were pastured (well, they were out in his yard), giving a connotation of free-range poultry - to me at least; I didn't get a "meatless" message from the ad.

[quinnox]

6. Maybe discrimination and dislike against vegans will become a new form of recognized bigotry

in political correctness.

[whatchamacallit]

7. The song, composed by Leslie Bricusse, was made famous in Willy Wonka

I live well on a totally plant-based diet and enjoyed the ad.