Gaming and Chipotle's "The Scarecrow"

Last class, we discussed games as new media tools for campaigns. I thought it was interesting to consider how far game culture has evolved, not only with the progression of the quality of games people are creating, but also with the growing following games have generated.

During our lecture, Professor Graf had brought up the concept of gamers hosting large scaled video game tournaments in arenas, and funnily, my friend had participated in a Super Smash Bros 4 tournament the Saturday before. That tournament definitely wasn’t in an arena—it was in a bar—but it was just as interesting to see the amount of sportsmanship and competition people had for this game. Granted, I was not able to attend the tournament as a spectator because I had other plans for the day, but I received a thorough summary of the event afterwards along with pictures. And from my friend as a primary source, it was evident that people are invested in games. There exists a market for this type of entertainment media and people approach games as an experience for the individual and group setting.

In class, something I had not considered before was that “games” are not limited to “video games.” It is true, as Professor Graf also brought up, that people are quick to frame “gamers” as a certain stereotype of a person, but games have become a broad channel in the digital world from games on Facebook to games featured on mobile apps. Games are no longer just console video games, they are accessible on various digital devices and people around the world can now play and interact with each other.

From a public relations point of view, I have seen games incorporated into a few campaigns, and I have always thought that integrating games is smart. Games have people invested for longer periods of time because of said gameplay. Having people engaged in an activity keeps their attention span and also makes it more likely for them to share the campaign/game. For my blog post, I want to highlight an innovative campaign that included a game as a communications approach.

In 2013, Chipotle released a short animated film advertisement entitled “The Scarecrow” that came with a companion iOS game that promoted sustainable farming. The premise of the film has a scarecrow protagonist set in a dystopian world, working for a large industrialized food corporation. At his job, the scarecrow witnesses abused and caged animals and questionable substances being sold and marketed as “all natural.” At the end of the film, the turn of events is when the scarecrow returns home to his small farmhouse, upset by what he had witnessed, and decides to build his own organic burrito stand. The film ends with the scarecrow standing in front of his small stand and a banner that says, “Cultivate a Better World” (TheScarecrowGame, 2013).

The gameplay of the companion game picks up where the film left off, and players play as the lead scarecrow. There are four worlds, each with its own mini game, and players can choose to stay in the marketplace or go back to the farmhouse (TheScarecrowGame, 2013)..

The campaign move from Chipotle was instantly praised for its innovative marketing technique, receiving 5.5 million views on YouTube and 300,000 game downloads in less than a week of its premiere (Cheney, 2013). The art of the film and its engaging narrative first attracted viewers, but by introducing a game, Chipotle expanded the experience of their story from a three-minute film to extended gameplay, which I think is smart. It attaches people to the story and the message that Chipotle is promoting—sustainable farming and serving honest food.