Chipotle has been making big marketing moves recently, with the hire of Chief Brand Officer Fernando Machado, a man who changed the face of QSR marketing at Burger King. We’ve yet to get any hints of the approach Machado will take at Chipotle, and how he might match some of his wild and experimental Burger King campaigns (like taking a minute of Super Bowl ad space to show Andy Warhol eating a cheeseburger).
But the brand’s early 2026 campaign shows that Chipotle is already happy to come out swinging at competitors, asserting its brand difference in an entertaining but very definite way. In only 15 seconds, the ad uses contrasting visuals and a great soundtrack to back up its long-standing “fresh vs processed” brand narrative.
Chipotle’s ad takes E-40’s decade old rap hit “Choices” and flips it to be about the quality and preparation you can expect in the brand’s restaurants. The formula of the song is a series of options to which E-40 replies with a straightforward “Yup” or “Nope.” In Chipotle’s ad these lyrical choices are replaced by visual ones. An assembly line of unappetizing, uncooked burgers? Nope. An avocado salad being prepared by hand? Yup. Unhealthy competitors? Nope. Chipotle? Yup.
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Chipotle doesn’t need to call out the competition by name. The imagery does the job, ending on a Chipotle salad bowl and the brand’s “The Difference Is Real” tagline.
How well does it work on real audiences, though? We took a deep dive into the effectiveness metrics of our Test Your Ad Pro report to find out how the ad feels to customers. And it’s clear that Chipotle’s ad is very strong. It gets a strong 4.2-Star Rating, the all-important metric that predicts long-term effectiveness and brand growth (the QSR average is 3.6-Stars.) It also earns an Exceptional score on our short-term Spike Rating, predicting major sales boosts from the campaign, and an Exceptional score on emotional intensity, thanks to the no-compromise messaging in the commercial.
Digging deeper into the diagnostics of Test Your Ad Pro, we can see that not only is Chipotle’s ad resonating, but it’s also resonating in exactly the way the brand would want. By a huge margin, the top “Key Association” for the ad is “Fresh food,” so the message is coming over strongly. That’s also confirmed by the second-by-second emotional trace, with viewers reacting negatively to the sight of the processed food from rivals and complimenting Chipotle on its quality produce and meats.
Finally, we can take a look at the indicative demographics. These are low-sample-size breakdowns that give us a directional look at how the ad may perform across different genders and age brackets. Men and women enjoy the ad equally, but the good news for Chipotle is that it looks like the youngest consumers, 18-34 year olds, are the most entertained and excited by the ad.
The marketing world is excited for Chipotle’s future, and we can’t wait to see what Fernando Machado makes from the brand ingredients. But this ad proves that Chipotle’s marketing presence is just as vibrant. Machado has a solid ground on which to build.
Vanessa Chin is the SVP of Marketing at System1, The Creative Effectiveness Platform that predicts and improves the commercial impact of ads and ideas. Vanessa leads US marketing efforts to enhance visibility and expand business opportunities. Previously, she was Marketing Director at ALDI, supporting its transformation into the fastest-growing US grocery chain. Vanessa has also worked at Leo Burnett, MARC USA, and BBDO, with expertise in advertising, brand development, and global marketing operations.
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