Chipotle Debuts a Takeout Bag the Size of a Love Seat for GUT's First Campaign

Chipotle is marking GUT's first campaign for the brand with a takeout bag built for maximum flex: 36 inches wide, 24 inches tall, and holding 170 liters, which the company is calling the "Big Ass Chipotle Bag." The oversized bag headlines a new national campaign promoting Family Meals, the chain's group-dining option, formerly known as Build-Your-Own Chipotle, that feeds four to six people for less than $10 a head. The ads shoot the bag like a luxury handbag, propped next to a trumpet, a Christmas tree, and one of Chipotle's dining chairs to sell the scale.

The bag itself is not for sale. Chipotle Rewards members in the U.S. who buy a Family Meal through the app or website are automatically entered into a multi-week sweepstakes running through November 10 for a chance to win one.

What makes this a brand story and not just a stunt is who brought GUT to the table. Chief Brand Officer Fernando Machado joined Chipotle in June as part of its turnaround push, and according to a company spokesperson, Chipotle skipped a pitch process entirely to bring on GUT, the same shop Machado worked with during his run as Burger King's chief marketing officer. GUT Miami's chief creative officer, Ricky Casal, said the concept needed no explanation: "letting the scale do the storytelling" was the whole brief. Sometimes the fastest way to find the right agency is to already know one.

Machado has been explicit about why he is doing this. "Real today is defined by many voices, not just by what a brand says about itself," he has said, framing the bag campaign the same way he framed Chipotle's August creator campaign: as a deliberate loss of control. That campaign, called Behind the Foil, handed cameras to 100 creators, including a potter and a stop-motion animator, to show off new menu items without a script or a shot list. It was also Chipotle's first national work from a different new agency partner, Kids, which means Machado has now launched two campaigns in four months from two different shops he had no prior contract with before walking in the door in June.

The timing matters. Machado replaced longtime CMO Chris Brandt and inherited a brand coming off a rough stretch, including a salmonella scare tied to jalapenos pulled from some Minnesota locations over the summer, the kind of story that makes "fresh" a harder word to put on a billboard with a straight face. Chipotle's Q2 same-store sales rose 2.2%, its best result in nearly two years, and the company credited menu innovation, its rewards program, and better hospitality, not advertising. A giant novelty bag will not fix a supply chain, but it is a cheap, shareable way to remind people the brand still knows how to be fun while the harder work happens in the kitchen.

Zoom out and the real story is how fast trust transfers in this industry. Machado spent more than seven years running marketing for Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Hortons at Restaurant Brands International, and he brought two agency relationships with him into a new job rather than opening either one up to review. That is the actual flex. The bag is just the part you can see.

Source: Adweek

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →