Chipotle Now Serving Up Burritos + Epiphanies

Chipotle is my favorite lifestyle brand. I’m not joking; no brand appears to embody my values as much as this burrito powerhouse. Chipotle’s savant-level marketing campaigns are elegantly rooted in pathos — for example, I dare you to try to make it through the award-winning Back To The Start video or The Scarecrow video without tears or chills. Really, good luck.

It seemed like a logical brand progression, then, when last week Chipotle announced their new partnership, the Cultivating Thought Author Series. They’ve partnered with a handful of writers and comedians to create a series of soda cups and to-go bags with original essays and musings printed on the sides. This project, the brainchild of author Jonathan Safran Foer, is a further articulation of their “cultivate” tagline.

“Cultivate” is the cornerstone of a genius brand identity. It’s a verb that urges you to actively and earnestly nourish, invest, and strengthen yourself, your community, your whatever. It’s bigger than burritos; it’s a philosophy. Simple yet stylized, certain of itself, and driven by folksy idealism, Chipotle’s marketing campaigns nail it every time. In this campaign, Chipotle urges us to nourish our bodies with hormone-free, sustainable ingredients, while nourishing our minds with digestible bits of wisdom and art. I’m looking forward to enjoying my next burrito with a side of Toni Morrison’s butterfly essay.