Flavors: Monday, October 17th
Lots of things change the moment you become a parent. Some people gain weight, others immediately ten years in our faces. We always look tired. But one universal thing that happens to just about all of us: We cry at everything. For real, before I had kids I could probably count the number of movies I’d cried at on one hand. Now? Movies, television, shadow puppets- I can’t even make it through five minutes of the evening news. And the thing that always makes me cry the most? Commercials. Pampers commercials, Barbie commmericals, Mr T Cereal commercials- thirty seconds, and I’m a weepy hysterical mess.
I had a moment like that this weekend at the Food Film Fesitval, where our film was preceded by a commercial which was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. As I have an image of total awesomeness to uphold, I was doing my best to suck it up and not make a scene. Then I got a text from Matt who was in the back of the theater saying he was crying. I looked around, and EVERYONE was crying. And instead of talking about it, I want, nay I NEED you to watch this. Turn the sound on and enjoy. It’s only two minutes:
HOW AMAZING WAS THAT!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!
I’m not a preachy farm to table type (in fact, with my schedule almost all my meals are take-out), and I’m not a Chipotle customer (though I will be now). But this commercial just blew me away. Then I got to thinking about how I wished every person in America could see this. Think about the Super Bowl commercials we see every year- big corporations throwing away millions and millions of dollars on abject crap. Wouldn’t it be amazing if instead of seeing a spot for a remake of a beloved childhood film that Hollywood has unnecessarily destroyed because they’re out of good ideas, the biggest commercial of the year was this one?
I immediately pulled out my phone and looked up Chipotle on Twitter, and found a listing for Chris Arnold, aka
, spokesperson for the brand. I just wanted to send a passionate message in the moment, to let them know that their commercial had been effective and they had gained a new fan.
@robicellis
Dear @ChipotleMedia: I just saw your commercial at #foodfilmfest. PLEASE air this during the Super Bowl.
(I apologize for the formatting here- can’t get the tweets to copy and paste well into Tumblr, and am waaaay to tired to figure out how to fix this.)
And I got a response from Chipotle in less than ten minutes. On a Saturday.
@ChipotleMedia
@robicellis I like that idea. But Super Bowl ads are terribly expensive, and that’s a long spot (more than two minutes).
First off, Bravo to Chris Arnold for blowing me away with the customer service. We’ve been back and forth tweeting for two days, and I don’t feel like I’m talking to a company but rather a real person. At this point I had not tasted a single thing that Chipotle has made, but I immediately fell so in love with the brand that even if the burritos are filled with asbestos I’d probably still eat them. No wonder my imaginary food boyfriend Nate Appleman went to work for you, Chipotle.
I also understand why they wouldn’t put this up during the Super Bowl. For them to air the entire commercial, it would cost them well over $12 million dollars, which is the is about the yearly salaries of 240 Chipotle managers. I’d much rather have them putting that cash towards jobs than commercials myself.
Fortunately, we live in a golden age where we do not need 12 million dollars for the world to see this! We can post this on Facebook, share on Twitter, tell our friends (Get the linkage an embed codes HERE). We can send a message to @ChipotleMedia and tell them how much we’ve enjoyed it. Or you can patronize Chipotle, and hope that their success leads to more fast food companies changing their operating practices.
Image of the founder of Chipotle on one of their farms with a future taco courtesy of ABC News
As silly as it is, I just think I’m so amped up because this is something I have believed in and have fought for my entire career. When I was in fine dining, I couldn’t stand the idea that only rich people were allowed to eat well, while people like me were eating mass produced burgers and hot dogs. Robicelli’s is founded on the principle that EVERYBODY, no matter what their class or how much money they have in their pocket, deserves to eat well. Chipotle seems to get that too, and even though only a few years ago it seemed like an impossible idea, they’re actually changing fast food. I hope one day we reach as many people as they do.
After the commercial, the tweets, the films, I finally had my first Chipotle taco at Matt Timm’s Taco Takedown, and you know what? It was the best “fast food dish” I’ve ever tried. Hit me up on Facebook and tell me what else I need to try, particularly any “healthy options”, since my fat ass gained about 10 pounds from Madison Square Eats.
I want to stress at this moment that I have not received any sort of incentives from Chipotle to write this post. Except for a “Free Burrito” coupon in my Film Festival gift bag. I also got a pair of socks from Google and you don’t see me writing about how great those are (yet). I also got a slinky from Bloomberg that I manged to get caught in my hair.
Clockwise from front: Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake, Bea Arthur, The Breucklen, Maple Walnut
Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake: Pumpkin cake, cheesecake buttercream, chocolate fudge dip
Bea Arthur: Black coffee infused chocolate cake, cheesecake buttercream, espresso ganache
The Breucklen: Apple cake, cinnamon caramel buttercream, Good Batch stroopwaffel
Maple Walnut: Maple walnut cake, vanilla buttercream, maple glazed walnuts
Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: Flatbush Avenue Extension & Willoughby Street, Downtown Brooklyn
Robicelli’s at Madison Square Eats: Corner of 25th Street & 5th Avenue
Cafe at Sam’s Bakery: 94th Street off Third Avenue, Bay Ridge
Aloha Grinds: 76th Street and 3rd Avenue, Bay Ridge
Bagel Schmagel: 76th Street and 3rd Avenue, Bay Ridge
Crespella: 7th Avenue off 9th Street, Park Slope
Tazza: Clark Street off Henry AND Henry Street off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Jem: Broadway off Franklin Street, TriBeCa
Cake Shop: Ludlow Street btwn Stanton & Rivington, LES
Joe Columbia University: W 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights
Queen City Cupcakes (Closed Monday- Flavors for Tuesday): 62 West Main Street, Patchouge, Long Island
Red Hook Lobster Pound: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook (Whoopie Pies Only)
