Last summer Chipotle released a video that has become very popular online. It depicts a farmer who has grown his operation into a so-called “factory” farm. This farm is shown pumping things into his livestock and even more bad things being pumped into the water around the farm. In the end he goes “Back to the Start.” As of this writing the video has 4,238,551 views. Pretty effective stuff.
Now McDonald’s has some videos of its own featuring real farmers growing real food for the fast food giant. Of course McDonald’s hasn’t always had the best real or imagined reputation when it comes to making their food. Here’s a link the The Globe and Mail saying just that kind of thing. Like the Chipotle ad that post uses a lot of scary words and imagery. Near the end the author takes the marketing to kids angle. I’ve never bought that. Everyone knows that eating a cheeseburger, fries, and a soft drink everyday isn’t good for you. You are not obligated to take your family to McDonald’s because they sell Happy Meals. There’s plenty of other food around. You could go to Chipotle (which was at one time owned by McDonald’s, but no longer). It does taste pretty good. My simple point here is that it’s interesting that McDonald’s has chosen to promote its suppliers, while Chipotle wants to make someone else look bad. Right now all three videos from McDonald’s have 701 views combined. I have YouTube videos with more views than that.
Watch the rest of the videos and decide for yourself then let me know what you think with a comment!
I agree with you. Farmers need to be the face of food especially for corporations selling food. Unfortunately non-ag audiences like the romanticized, unrealistic perspectives more than reality! I hope the trend of what McDonald’s has done catches on. Thanks for commenting on my post! I’m adding your blog to my farm blogs.
Cool! Thanks, Katie. Not a bad post yourself!
I agree as well. I saw at least 2 of the 3 McDonalds commercials yesterday watching NFL. I was impressed by the McDonalds commercials. I feel Farmers need to do whatever we can to promote the Best Management Practices we implement on our farms everyday. We are the minority and not very many people realize what we actually do everyday to produce the best possible products to feed the world.
I haven’t seen any on TV. I just caught wind of it over Facebook. I’ll have to start watching for them.
I enjoyed your post. Katie Pinke’s former counterpart sent this link to me on Behind the Scenes for the Chipotle video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFlbGwAW7rw They have really invested a lot.
We are working at the Ohio Pork Council to make a animated video and incorporate real farmers inside of real barns right now. I hope we’re able to get some views for another side of the story…
I saw that in the sidebar when I was getting the link for the Chipotle video. Maybe I’ll give it a watch. I’d be interested to see what you come up with at Ohio Pork Council.
Who do we believe more- a cute cartoon or did you say ‘real’ farmer?Trash both.The real farmer is you and me, with dirt under our nails and sun burned faces.Advertisements always magnify their message.At the end of the day they have to sell.So back to work Brian.
I don’t think that anyone doubts that farmers work hard, care about their crops/animals, and are personally invested in their farms. Which is what the McDonald’s commercials show. But what McDonald’s leaves out is the kind of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, gas guzzling machinery, and cheap labor that is needed to support the large farms that can produce enough for McDonald’s. It is a catch 22. I never had people complain about the prices i charged for free range Muscovy duck because they knew (especially if they had been to a farm tour) what raising those ducks entailed. But I did lose customers (particularly chefs) when I couldn’t sell them 25 ducks a week all year long. And I couldn’t do that without incubators, buying from hatcheries, bag feed instead of forage, a larger flock that would compromise my farm environment and require machinery to haul bedding, manure, etc. Luckily, we have a very educated, local consumer base that understands and works well with small producers. Otherwise, I’d be in the same boat as the first farmer video!!! stevie @ ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com
Good perspective, Stevie. Sometimes I think it’s hard for me to do posts like these without sounding like I’m against smaller farms, organic farms, etc. If you can make a living at it, and even better if you’re happy doing it, more power to you. I’m just glad to see something that’s just pro-farmer out there and isn’t making a case against something else. It doesn’t hurt that the families in those ads represent my farm pretty well aside from the products they grow. We have big machinery and are employing technology and practices that allow us to use less fuel, seed, and other inputs with the intent of increasing yields and profits.
I think the videos are well-done and a masterful piece of marketing. As a farmer who tries to cultivate genuine connections with eaters, I find intention behind the videos offensive because, in my opinion, they are banking on the positive public perception of farmers in order to sell a product that bears little resemblance to the raw agricultural ingredients: a true depiction of their product would give equal time to the chemists who create the unpronounceable additives that also go into their products! Instead, they are selecting the most positive, emotionally-resonant aspects in order to gloss over the ugly truth. Brilliant marketing sure, but I’m not convinced that farmers should be applauding it.
Rob here from @songberryfarm on Twitter – I tried logging in to identify myself as the author of the above comment but the attempt appears to have failed — didn’t intend to hide my identity!
Got it!
I don’t totally disagree with that. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen lettuce that good looking when it comes out on my tray, but it had to start somewhere. I didn’t write this to say McDonald’s is the greatest thing to happen to agriculture in recent history, more just to say that it’s nice to see something positive about ag out there, but I will agree these ads probably come with some built in misconceptions of their own. But at least they aren’t knocking one kind of ag to promotoe another like the Chipotle ads.
I have to reply to the comment about all the conversation that floats regarding the use of pesticides and all the other negative issues. We all need to remember that our farmers only have 1 thing in mind – to do their very best in their chosen efforts of feeding the world. And they work very hard to accomplish that.
Like a spider’s web – other entities come into play to arrive at that goal – all the middle men – all the packaged food processors – all the distributors – all the retailers, etc..
But that web begins at the core – which arrives by the explosion of population that continues. Personally – I take issue with having 19 children – trying to have more – relying on grocery stores – and then expecting your 19 children to do the same.
When it comes to growing turnips or anything else in this world – there comes a point when you cannot do one more thing to squeeze the blood out. If farmers had the choice… if the population would just slow down… they could enjoy their happiness so much more… with so much less negative blasts coming at them.
I adore each and every single human being that gets out there before crunch time to get dirty before they’ve even had breakfast. I think those of us not in their shoes need to stand still to look in mirrors and change the conversation. ” What direction can we take the issue of population toward, in order to help make us all come to a comfortable place in a room? “