What Chipotle’s “The Scarecrow” Still Teaches Us About Brand Storytelling

Every once in a while, an advertisement comes along that reminds us what brand storytelling is actually supposed to do.

Back in 2013, Chipotle did exactly that with The Scarecrow.

I talk a lot about telling your story and letting your audience get to know you—and, more importantly, decide whether they identify with your business based on that story. But rarely do we see a brand story told as clearly and compellingly as Chipotle did with The Scarecrow.

If you haven’t seen it, by all means stop here and watch the video. It’s about three minutes—and a great three minutes. You’ll be glad you did.

Now, here’s the interesting part: the film is more than a decade old, and I think its lesson may be even more relevant in 2026 than it was when I originally wrote this article.

A Brand Doesn’t Have to Say Everything to Tell You Who It Is

Did you notice that without a single word of dialogue, the story, values, and raison d’être of Chipotle were made clear?

That’s not an accident.

The Scarecrow painted a bleak picture of industrialized food production and then positioned Chipotle as an alternative. It didn’t spend three minutes talking about burritos. It didn’t trot out a list of product features. It didn’t tell us about convenient locations or explain how delicious the guacamole was.

It told us what the brand believed.

That’s a bold story. A brave story. And, yes, a potentially polarizing one.

Not everyone appreciated the message then, and not everyone would appreciate it today.

That’s precisely the point.

Your Target Audience Isn’t Everyone

This is why having a clearly defined target audience is so critical.

Chipotle wasn’t looking for “everyone” to become a customer. It was talking specifically to people who cared—or could be persuaded to care—about the quality, sourcing, and integrity of their food.

If you didn’t care about those things, that was okay.

Chipotle didn’t need everyone’s business.

That can be a frightening idea for a business owner. We’re naturally reluctant to turn anybody away. If someone has money and would like to give us some of it, surely our marketing should welcome them with open arms.

But a strong brand can’t be everything to everybody. The more you sand off the edges to make sure nobody disagrees with you, the less there is for the right people to identify with.

There are more than enough people who care deeply about the things your brand stands for.

There are also plenty of people who care enough that your point of view can influence their buying decision when the moment comes.

That’s the audience you’re looking for.

Brand Storytelling Is About Affiliation

This is one of the things I think we sometimes miss when talking about brand storytelling.

A good brand story doesn’t simply explain your business.

It gives people something to affiliate with.

When someone watches The Scarecrow, Chipotle is essentially asking them: Does this matter to you, too?

If the answer is yes, the relationship between consumer and brand has moved beyond “I like burritos.”

That’s powerful.

And the results suggest the story found its people. The Scarecrow eventually generated more than 650 million media impressions and 18 million film views, along with two Cannes Grand Prix Lions and two Daytime Emmy Awards.

Not bad for a three-minute cartoon about a sad scarecrow.

The Lesson Hasn’t Changed—Even Though Marketing Has

A lot has happened since 2013.

Social media has changed. Video has changed. Search has changed. We’ve gone from worrying about whether businesses should have a Facebook page to wondering how much of the internet was written by a machine before breakfast.

But people haven’t stopped looking for brands that they recognize themselves in.

And Chipotle hasn’t stopped working that territory.

In 2026, the company took an interesting next step with its Behind the Foil campaign. Instead of polishing the brand story within an inch of its life, Chipotle gave cameras to 100 creators inside more than 50 restaurants and built a national campaign without a second of brand-shot footage.

Different execution. Same underlying idea.

Let people see what you believe—and give them something real to connect with.

That matters even more in an environment where businesses have access to tools that can generate an endless supply of perfectly adequate words, images, posts, and videos.

“Adequate” is getting awfully cheap.

Point of view isn’t.

So, How’s Your Brand Narrative?

Do you know what your business believes?

More importantly, are you willing to say it clearly enough that someone could decide whether they believe it, too?

Do you have a target audience you’re willing to bet on—or are you still trying to leave the door open wide enough for absolutely everybody?

Those aren’t advertising questions. They’re brand questions.

If there’s work for you to do there, my book, Finding Brand: The Brand Book Tutorial, walks you step-by-step through creating a strong and powerful brand.

Or, if you just want to stick your toe in the water, check out the Brand Book Tutorial Series here on the blog.

When I first wrote about The Scarecrow in 2013, I ended by saying that as a consumer, the video forced me to decide where my values around food production lay—and whether those values would change my buying behavior.

Thirteen years later, that’s still the test.

Great brand storytelling helps people understand what you stand for.

Then it lets them decide.

And that’s far more powerful than trying to convince everybody.