Now Serving "Honest Ingredients"

New Chipotle Ads use Honest Ingredients to Tout Food with Integrity

(Tuesday, June 20, 2006) - The big burrito joint whose identity has for years been enhanced through a series of advertisements showing only a foil-wrapped burrito icon and any one of hundreds of headlines playing to the size of its burritos, the quality of its ingredients or a number of local or inside jokes, is evolving.

Chipotle Mexican Grill's new advertising campaign, developed with Boulder, Colo.-based TDA Advertising and Design, is aimed at promoting the philosophy Chipotle calls, "Food with Integrity." The new-look ads show farm animals delivering honest - sometimes brutally honest - comments and the tagline "Honest Ingredients" for outdoor executions, and print adds that talk in more detail about Chipotle's ongoing quest for better quality ingredients.

One outdoor execution shows a chicken saying through a cartoon bubble, "No one cares that your kid is an honor student," and the tag "Honest Ingredients," while another shows a cow stating, "Those look fake," paid off with the same tag.

Print ads explain in more detail what Chipotle is doing with food, constantly searching for the very best ingredients from the very best sources, but in a way that's consistent with the company's philosophy of entertaining while educating.

"Food with Integrity is the vision that guides Chipotle," explains Chipotle Marketing Director and Bon Vivant Jim Adams. "But it's something that isn't quickly or easily explained. This campaign is designed to capture people's attention through quick, humorous headlines that grab attention and introduce the idea of 'Honest Ingredients,' and explain that idea through ads with more copy and in our restaurants."

"We use aluminum. A material found on the space shuttle," proclaims one print ad headline. "At Chipotle Mexican Grill, we want to find better food just like the astronauts want to find better planets to visit. No disrespect to the moon," the copy explains.

"Our advertising has always flirted with the acceptable boundaries and pushed people's ability to quickly grasp what we're talking about," said Adams. "Sometimes things are worth taking a little time to think about, particularly when it's the food we eat. If a pig proclaiming, 'I'm not wearing any underwear' can catch your attention and make you think in some way about the food you eat, that's a good thing."

Now Serving "Honest Ingredients"

The campaign was produced by TDA Advertising and Design. The new-look ads can be seen in Chipotle markets around the country on outdoor and transit boards, and in newspapers and magazines in select cities.

About Chipotle

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) offers a focused menu of burritos, tacos, burrito bols (a burrito without the tortilla) and salads made from fresh, high-quality raw ingredients, prepared using classic cooking methods and served in a distinctive atmosphere. Through our vision of Food with Integrity, Chipotle is seeking better food not only from a variety of fresh ingredients, but ingredients that are sustainably grown and naturally raised with respect for the animals, the land, and the farmers who produce the food. Chipotle opened its first restaurant in 1993 and operates more than 500 restaurants today. For more information, visit www.chipotle.com.

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