Chipotle hands its national ad campaign to 100 creators and uses no brand-shot footage

Chipotle has launched a national advertising campaign in which every frame was shot by outside creators. The chain gave 100 content creators access to more than 50 restaurants in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, let them film whatever they wanted behind the counter, and cut the resulting 345 hours of footage into 30- and 15-second spots for television as well as vertical edits for TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.

The work, announced on August 31, is the latest chapter of the Behind the Foil platform that Chipotle has used since 2019 to show its kitchens and fresh ingredients. This time there were no scripts or shot lists, and the brand says it shot nothing itself. Participants ranged from food and craft accounts to a potter, a domino artist and a stop-motion animator, with a combined following of more than 100 million.

It is the first major campaign from Fernando Machado, who joined Chipotle as chief brand officer this year after a long run at Burger King’s parent Restaurant Brands International. It is also the first work from KIDS, the Brazil-based agency founded by Icaro Doria, which Chipotle recently added as a creative partner. Machado said the brief reflects that “real today is defined by many voices,” rather than by what a company says about itself.

Why it matters

Creator content in brand campaigns is nothing new, but handing over an entire national TV buy to creators is. Most brands still treat influencer clips as a social add-on to agency-produced hero film. Chipotle inverts that hierarchy, betting that unpolished kitchen footage reads as more credible than studio gloss at a moment when the chain is trying to reassure customers about food quality after recent food-safety headlines, as Marketing Dive notes.

The commercial backdrop helps explain the urgency. Chipotle posted a 2.2% rise in same-store sales in the second quarter, its best result in almost two years, and is supporting the campaign with two limited-time products at once, a reformulated Pollo Asado and new Chili Lime Chips, a first for the brand.

What’s next

Machado built his reputation at Burger King on stunts that generated earned media far beyond paid reach. The creator-only format is a quieter version of the same logic: 100 participants posting their own cuts guarantees distribution the media plan never paid for. Agencies will be watching whether the approach survives contact with brand-safety reviewers and whether a fast-food category built on hero product shots can live without them.