Willie Nelson covers Coldplay's The Scientist for Chipotle Foundation

[66]

Very cool. Both Willie and the promotion.

[RedBalloon]

Thanks for posting the news! It is a wisdom/philophy that is reflected in "a full circle" different aspcts of life/living~, for all types of "relation" [human vs animals/nature/environment; human to human; reality VS dream; music inspiration VS action etc...]. It is all about energy and this energy will attract the one with the same viberation frequency - translated in consciousness as Love/Harmony ~

[busybeeburns]

For more on the "Back to the Start" project, check out the "making of" video below:



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Quote:

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Chipotle Scores Sustainable Hit with Willie Nelson's Coldplay Cover

Chipotle Mexican Grill is going Hollywood to shed light on the importance of a sustainable food eco-system as seen in the above video, “Back to the Start.”

Featuring a moving cover of Coldplay's The Scientist by music legend Willie Nelson, the two-minute stop-motion animated short follows a farmer who turns his family business into an industrial animal factory, reaping disastrous results before coming to his senses and choosing a more sustainable future.

The film by Irish animator Johnny Kelly and the soundtrack were commissioned by Chipotle in their first foray into branded entertainment, and will be shown in 5,700 theaters across the United States starting in September.

The video also supports the brand's increased commitment to promoting sustainability via a new foundation and a first-of-its-kind event.

“We produced this film to help illustrate the choices people face in deciding what to eat, and hope that it will encourage people to choose food that is raised with respect for the land, the animals, and the farmers that produce it,” said Steve Ells, Chipotle’s founder (whose story is told in a different type of animation, above).

The Denver-based restaurant chain has made the song available on iTunes for 99 cents, with 60 cents of that going to the just-launched Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, which supports family farms, and is sponsoring the first Cultivate sustainable food festival, a free event (taking place Oct. 1st in Chicago) that will bring together "food, farmers, chefs, thought leaders, and musicians."

To date, Chipotle has contributed more than $2 million to initiatives that support sustainable agriculture, family farming and culinary education including: The Jamie Oliver Food Revolution, the Lunch Box, the Nature Conservancy and Veggie U, Niman Scholarship, Culinary Institute of America, The Land Institute, and FamilyFarmed.org.

“Delicious, affordable food can be produced without exploiting the farmers, the animals or the environment. Chipotle has proven this to be true, but Chipotle is only one small part of the solution. Our goal now should be to have all food produced as sustainably as possible,” says Ells.

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http://www.brandchannel.com/home/pos...ie-Nelson.aspx

[Christa42]

I think it's absolutely beautiful, it's so pure. (the song) Mr. Nelson's voice gets better and better as he gets older.

The ad was so unexpected during such a high energy show, it totally had me wowed and I was like "what was that?" It did the job though, everyone and their mother knows what Chipolte's is now.

edit, and yes, I ordered the song on Itunes

[blueberry426]

I like the animation but I don't really like Willie Nelson's cover. I just don't like country music. The Scientist is my favorite Coldplay song. IMO, no one can sing it better than Chris.

[anacaren08]

It made me want Chipotle

and I actually liked the cover, and i loved the video cuz of the cute animation, poor piggies
Im glad it is bringing awareness to the issue as well.
im gonna go purchase the song now....

[Tash]

Chipotle's First National Ad is a Grammy Hit

Quality scores for Chipotle improved significantly after the launch of its first national advertisement during the Grammys on February 12. The ad’s emotional portrayal of a farmer’s journey back to sustainable and humane farming methods had Grammy viewers Tweeting. The ad’s soundtrack, a Willie Nelson cover of Coldplay’s The Scientist, was an instant Twitter hit, and, according to many Tweets, the best performance of the night.

The two minute animated commercial spans the life of a family farmer who shifted his practices to factory farming, boxing in his pigs and cattle and developing a vast and impersonal processing plant. Miserable, he realizes his error and returns to family farming with open pastures and contented livestock. The ad closes out with him personally loading up his small Chipotle truck with produce.

Launched officially during the Grammys, the ad was announced the prior Thursday as the restaurant’s first national ad campaign. The commercial, however, has been on YouTube since last August, reaching over five million views to date.

Based on U.S. consumers who have eaten Mexican food in the past month, Chipotle’s Quality scores have increased since the launch of the campaign, while the Mexican fast food restaurants index has remained flat. The average Quality score of the index has hovered around 8 over the past few weeks. Starting from the announcement of Chipotle’s ad campaign on February 9 until February 13, the day after it premiered during the Grammys, Chipotle’s Quality score steadily rose from 28 to 32. In contrast, Taco Bell, another popular chain in the same industry, saw a decline in Quality scores from 27 to 22 in the same time period.


Quality score, Chipotle, Taco Bell and Mexican QSR

Chipotle and Taco Bell were measured using YouGov BrandIndex’s Quality score, which asks respondents: “”Which brands do you think represent good / poor quality?”

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[Tash]

Chipotle's sustainable farming ad named best TV campaign at Cannes
Jury chairman praises 'heart impact and gut impact' of ad using Willie Nelson cover of Coldplay to question factory farming

A touching animated ad by the US fast food chain Chipotle that used a moving Willie Nelson cover of Coldplay's The Scientist to prick the conscience of rivals who factory farm has been named the best TV campaign in the world.

The two-minute ad, Back to the Start, which has won the grand prix award in the blue riband category at the Cannes international festival of creativity, provoked a storm of debate and received acclaim when it was first aired on TV in the US during the Grammys in February.

The heartfelt ad charts the journey of a farmer as he develops his land into a huge industrialised animal factory, realises the error of his ways and switches back to sustainable and humane practices.

"It was timeless with heart impact and gut impact," said the chairman of the 23-strong jury, Khai Meng Tham. "The best winners at Cannes always have a message, I think, and factory farming is such a big issue everywhere in the world. For a fast food company to do this will, we hope, change the industry, change the world."

There were several contenders for the top award. However, it is understood that 15 of the 22 judges – the chairman does not usually vote for the winner – voted for the Chipotle ad after spending a week whittling down 3,475 entries from 66 countries.

"For the grand prix there were three or four possibles we discussed but when it came to final voting it wasn't even close," said the UK judge Mick Mahoney when asked in a press conference about the other contenders. "Which was surprising really because when we were discussing the options there was very strong work."

The competitors were the Guardian's Three Little Pigs, Bear by the French cable TV channel Canal+ and the US satellite TV company DirecTV's campaign, he said.

"The jury just felt really strongly. Chipotle was so clearly the one everyone liked. Not every piece of film needs a social message in it. It is just such a perfect little circle of an ad."

Chipotle also picked up the grand prix in the branded content and entertainment category.

Of the contenders in the film category the highly fancied Bear TV campaign by Canal+, which tells the humorous story of a temperamental talking bear that directs films, picked up a gold lion.

The ad Canal Plus – A Bear Rug also picked up the grand prix, three golds and silver in the separate film craft category.

There was also much pre-judging buzz surrounding the Guardian's Three Little Pigs TV campaign, a modern-day take on the fairytale that displays the newspaper's concept of "open journalism".

The campaign, by BBH London, picked up a gold lion in the film category, a gold and five silver in the film craft category and a silver in the Titanium and Integrated category.

The TV campaign follows the developing story of the pigs being arrested in a police raid via the Guardian's coverage and interaction with readers and internet users through the newspaper, website, blogs, tweets and video.

"Three Little Pigs was incredibly 'today' … Canal+ was a stunning piece of film very well executed," said Andrea Stillacci, one of the judges in the film category.

"There were strong contenders on the table. The thinking was not that the [film category] grand prix has to deliver a message … but on Chipotle we found an incredible simplicity and dichotomy of something very quiet that speaks so loud and yet it is also there to sell fast food".

The ad is the Guardian's first major brand TV ad since 1986's groundbreaking "Points of View".

The other contender in the film category, although it was much more of an outsider, was DirecTV which managed a gold lion.

The former US president Bill Clinton named the campaign as his favourite during a seminar at Cannes on Thursday where he talked passionately about trying to solve the host of economic, social and environmental issues across the world.

One of the judges pointed out that Chipotle's campaign is exactly the sort the former president would like to see coming from the ad industry to help effect change.

Other UK winners on the final day of awards on Saturday included AMV BBDO's Doritos campaign, which won a gold in film; Wieden & Kennedy London, which won a gold in film craft for Lurpak; and Nike's I Am Playr campaign by We R Interactive London.

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