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Decisions and Emotions

Holly ScottBy

decisions and emotionsChipotle’s Scarecrow video and game app is an effort to influence your decisions and emotions.  If you haven’t seen the video, you can view it here:

The video went viral with almost 6 million views on youtube and received wide critical acclaim for the video production quality.

The Week’s Peter Weber calls it “the most beautiful, haunting infomercial you’ll ever see.”  Read Peter Weber’s Review to see the rest of his opinions on the advertisement.
On the other hand, Funny or Die has produced a scathing video parody of  Scarecrow.  You can watch that video along with commentary by Scott Meslow here:

Critics of the Scarecrow campaign believe Chipotle is misleading consumers by displaying an inaccurate view of current factory farming practices.  Others believe Chipotle is attempting to make changes to current practices by increasing awareness.  Chipotle chief marketing officer Mark Crumpacker states in a USA Today article, “We’re trying to educate people about where their food comes from.”

Human beings make decisions based on emotions.  Chipotle’s Scarecrow is a classic attempt at generating an emotional response in individuals that will lead to buying decisions that are favorable to Chipotle.  The rebuttal videos and commentaries are attempting to generate emotional responses that will lead to buying decision that are unfavorable to Chipotle.

Where do you stand?  Is Scarecrow unethical, or is it exactly the same as any other type of marketing we are exposed to everyday?