By Sara Nicole Glass
Hello, my name is Sara, and I am a Chipotle-oholic. Some people believe in love at first sight. Others believe in destiny, soulmates, and the mysterious forces of the universe bringing two beings together. Me? Food is my love language.
My love affair with Chipotle began in eighth grade, back when I was young, innocent, and apparently completely unaware of how to order Americanized Mexican food. My first visit consisted of nothing more than chips and salsa. That’s it. No burrito. No bowl. No guacamole. Just a bag of those delicious lime chips and a size of pico. Little did I know how deep this relationship would go.
Chipotle would become my go-to comfort guilty pleasure, my “healthy” fast food road dog companion, and quite possibly the longest-lasting relationship of my adult life. Some people have a weakness for chocolate. Some can’t resist a good-looking stranger (ok, maybe I’m a bit prone to that one too..) But when all else fails me, my comforting kryptonite comes wrapped in foil and has eyes way bigger than my stomach. I admit it. No shame.
I can be driving around town, minding my own business, on my way to run errands, with perfectly respectable dinner plans waiting at home. Then, out of nowhere, I see that familiar Chipotle sign and my car develops a mind of its own. One minute I’m headed to the grocery store, and the next I’m standing in line debating whether today’s the day I finally try something different. Spoiler alert: it’s usually pretty much the same: Burrito, extra white rice, black beans, chicken or steak, corn, green then hot salsa (in that order, so you get more corn and less hot), extra sour cream and cheese, and a side of chips and gauc, so now you’re getting two or three meals out of this baby!
I have occasionally wondered whether Chipotle pumps some kind of invisible burrito pheromone into the surrounding atmosphere. How else do you explain the gravitational pull?
Before There Was Tinder, There Was My Burrito Soulmate
Flash forward to 2007. I’m attending the University of Kansas, studying journalism and advertising, when an opportunity comes along that feels almost cosmically designed for me: a national advertising competition sponsored by Chipotle. This wasn’t just an extra credit assignment. This was destiny.
The competition was called 30 Seconds of Fame, and the assignment involved developing original Chipotle commercials. We were advertising students with cameras, creative ambition, and the sort of confidence that only comes from being young enough to believe a thirty-second commercial might change the world.
Naturally, I took the assignment very seriously. By which I mean I decided Chipotle was a dating service.
My group’s campaign slogan was: “Locate Your Soulmate at Chipotle.com.”
The concept was simple: somewhere out there, waiting for you, was your perfect burrito. Not just any burrito. The one. Your soulmate. Your edible destiny. A carefully assembled combination of ingredients that understood you in ways no human being ever could. You get to decide exactly what you want. Rice? Absolutely. No Beans? Depends on the mood. Salsa? Let’s talk about compatibility. Guacamole? Now we’re discussing commitment.
Sure, this soulmate might occasionally fall apart in your hands, but don’t we all?
My college group created three commercials around the campaign, that stared my friends and roommates, and thanks to the internet, they still exist!
Watch my original Chipotle commercials:
- Commercial #1 — Locate Your Soulmate
- Commercial #2 — The Burrito Love Affair Continues
- Commercial #3 — Another Shot at Edible Romance
Needless to say, we DIDN’T WIN THE COMPETITION! I was burrito-shell shocked! And you’re never going to guess who DID win… none other than the OTHER KU advertising team. Here was their winning spot: “Andy Chipotlegs”
Wait a Minute. Haven’t I Seen This Burrito Before?
Years later, I saw a Chipotle advertisement that made me stop and think, Hold on. That sounds awfully familiar. It involved the idea of finding love in a burrito. Suddenly I was transported back to KU, to our student advertising campaign, and to my little slogan about locating your soulmate at Chipotle.com.
Now, am I saying Chipotle used our idea? NO. And would I care if they did? Definately not, I would have been honored. I am saying I had a serious case of burrito déjà vu.
Advertising concepts overlap all the time. Love, food, personalization, and finding your perfect match are pretty natural ingredients for a brand built around customizing your meal. But I couldn’t help wondering whether something we created in a classroom in Lawrence, Kansas, that landed on the cutting room floor, might have somehow found its way into the creative universe of the company itself.
After all, this wasn’t just a random class project about a fictional restaurant. It was part of a real national competition sponsored by Chipotle, and the company was actively inviting students to develop advertising for its brand. Maybe someone saw our commercials. Maybe somebody remembered an idea. Maybe a completely different creative team independently arrived at the same delicious conclusion years later.
Or maybe burritos really are everyone’s soulmate, and we were simply ahead of our time.
Whatever the explanation, the whole thing still makes me smile. Somewhere in the archives of the internet are these commercials made by college students who believed that true love could be found at the bottom of a tortilla.
The Competition Was Real. And Bigger Than I Remembered.
Here’s where my little college advertising adventure gets interesting. Chipotle’s 30 Seconds of Fame competition wasn’t some obscure classroom exercise. It was a national marketing initiative that ran in 2006 and again in 2007, inviting college students to create original thirty-second commercials.
In 2007, teams from 18 schools submitted 45 advertisements, and Chipotle’s own marketing department judged them on creativity, originality, brand consistency, and production quality. The winning teams from Chapman University and Northern Illinois University split a $30,000 prize. The previous year’s winners even had their commercials shown in Times Square and other advertising venues.
The original competition generated 17.3 million YouTube views in 2006. Chipotle’s marketing director, Jim Adams, explained that the company wanted to see how its own customers would advertise the brand. In other words, Chipotle was literally asking college students to come up with ideas for selling Chipotle.
The McDonald’s Myth: A Commom Misconception
Speaking of things that make people raise their eyebrows, let’s address one of the most persistent myths about Chipotle: that it’s owned by McDonald’s. Whenever someone tells me this, I feel compelled to interrupt whatever perfectly pleasant conversation we’re having and deliver an unsolicited lecture about burrito ownership. Because apparently I have become the kind of person who fact-checks fast-casual restaurant genealogy at parties. (You know, like how vegans sound when they first go green)
Fact: McDonald’s really did own a controlling stake in Chipotle. Chipotle was founded by Steve Ells in Denver in 1993. McDonald’s began investing in the company in 1998, when Chipotle had just 16 restaurants in the Denver area. By 2006, it had grown to more than 500 locations nationwide. That’s a lot of burritos, and McDonald’s money helped fuel the expansion.
But in 2006, McDonald’s divested its ownership. The official explanation was that McDonald’s wanted to concentrate its resources on its own brand, while Chipotle would gain more independence and flexibility. There’s a popular narrative that Chipotle needed to escape the McDonald’s association because it was damaging its image as a fresh-food alternative. I can certainly understand why the association might have seemed awkward. Chipotle was building an identity around fresh ingredients and food prepared in the restaurant, while McDonald’s represented the traditional fast-food empire. The companies’ official statements emphasized strategic independence and McDonald’s desire to refocus on its core business, not a confirmed finding that the association was hurting Chipotle’s reputation.
And just to be clear, McDonald’s hasn’t owned Chipotle since 2006. So the next time somebody confidently informs you that your burrito is secretly a Big Mac in disguise, feel free to correct them. Thank you for coming to my Bread-Talk
Chipotle Discovers Love. Sound Familiar?
As the years passed, Chipotle continued experimenting with advertising campaigns that explored the emotional connections people have with food. In 2016, the company released an animated short film called A Love Story, about two young food entrepreneurs whose rivalry leads them into the world of increasingly processed fast food. It was beautifully produced, though admittedly not about someone falling head over heels for a burrito.
Watch Chipotle’s A Love Story on YouTube
Then came the 2018 Valentine’s Day campaign Love Guacs, celebrating real couples whose relationships were connected to Chipotle. First dates, romance, weddings, burritos. The company had officially entered the business of love stories, although the soulmates in these advertisements were human beings rather than individually customized entrées.
Explore Chipotle’s Love Guacs campaign
More recently, Chipotle’s YourPotle campaign emphasized the idea that every customer has a uniquely perfect order. (Hello 2007!) The perfect match. The perfect combination. The perfect burrito. You can watch it here!
I do find it fascinating that a company I was already in love with as a teenager eventually built so much of its marketing around the emotional connection between people and their food.
I was in a committed relationship with my burrito before they made it fashionable.
For the record, Chipotle, if you’re reading this: I’m available for creative consulting, brand storytelling, and especially taste-testing.
Locate Your Soulmate at Chipotle.com. Sign me UP!
With love and extra cheese,
MissChipotle
Videos and links
My original 2007 Chipotle commercials
Chipotle advertising history
