Chipolte “Scarecrow” ad goes viral – sparks food debate

“THE SCARECROW” HAS BEEN PRAISED as an innovative piece of marketing and beautiful work of art, and applauded for its anti-factory-farming message. As of Monday afternoon, it had been viewed nearly 6.3 million times on YouTube,” as the New Yorker reports.

“And while the film’s message has won praise from some foodies and advocates for food reform, some agricultural producers have responded angrily, accusing Chipotle of peddling misleading representations of conventional agricultural methods: all farmers, they argue, care about their animals, and no one keeps a cow in a metal box or injects a chicken with green slime.”

“So does ‘The Scarecrow’ initiate an important conversation about our food system? Showcase Chipotle’s genuine commitment to sustainability? Or is it a cynical attempt to turn consumer fears about certain agricultural methods into sales?

“’We’ve never professed to being perfect,’ Chris Arnold, Chipotle’s communications director, told me. ‘The commitment we’ve made is to constant improvement.’

The rest of the article is here.

The video is here: