Chipotle is putting creators behind the camera in a big way. The restaurant chain has recruited 100 content creators for the latest version of its long-running “Behind the Foil” campaign. Instead of filming a traditional commercial and bringing influencers in afterward, Chipotle built the campaign around footage shot by creators themselves.
The finished campaign contains no brand-shot footage. Creators visited more than 50 Chipotle restaurants across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, stepping into kitchens during food preparation and documenting what really happens behind the counter. The result is hundreds of hours of creator footage that Chipotle is turning into national television advertising and short-form social content.
Chipotle Gives 100 Creators Access to Its Kitchens
The creators were not simply invited to taste the food and share reactions. They were brought directly into Chipotle kitchens and given access to the preparation process. Creators worked alongside restaurant employees while chicken was grilled, vegetables were cut, chips were seasoned and guacamole was made by hand. That access gave them more material to work with than a typical restaurant sponsorship.
The campaign also highlights Chipotle’s updated Pollo Asado and its Chili Lime Chips. Both products are being promoted together as part of the wider advertising push. Rather than giving every creator the same rigid instructions, Chipotle allowed them to document the kitchen experience through their own creative style.
No Brand-Shot Footage Made the Final Campaign
One of the most unusual parts of the campaign is that Chipotle says every frame used in the finished national advertising came from creators. The company did not simply blend influencer clips into a traditional commercial. Creator footage became the commercial itself.
The 100 creators produced around 345 hours of footage across more than 50 restaurant locations. Collectively, they reach more than 100 million followers across social platforms. That gives Chipotle a large secondary distribution network once each creator begins sharing campaign material with their own audience.
The content will appear across national television as well as TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. It turns what could have been a conventional influencer campaign into something much closer to a creator-built media strategy.
Chipotle Looked Beyond Traditional Food Influencers
Chipotle did not limit the campaign to creators who normally post restaurant reviews, recipes or food content. The company brought in people from several creative niches, including animation, pottery, stop-motion, visual art and domino design.
That choice makes the campaign feel broader than a standard food promotion. Stop-motion animator Ben Treat approached Chipotle through claymation, while potter Emme Zhou created ceramics inspired by the brand. Domino artist Lily Hevesh used the restaurant’s preparation process as inspiration for one of her designs, while food artist Alissa Teo recreated her usual steak burrito bowl through rice art.
The strategy gives Chipotle access to audiences that may not normally follow food influencers. It also gives creators room to interpret the brand in ways that feel more natural to their own channels.
The Campaign Is Designed to Feel Like Social Content
Chipotle worked with creative agency KIDS on the campaign, but the goal was not to polish creator footage until it resembled traditional advertising. The company wanted the finished content to retain the visual language audiences already recognize from TikTok, Reels and other social platforms.
That distinction matters. Brands have spent years producing professional advertisements that are deliberately styled to look informal or creator-led. Chipotle has taken the idea further by using actual creator-shot material as the foundation of the campaign.
The result is advertising that can move between television and social media without feeling completely different on each platform. A clip can appear inside a creator’s feed and still work inside a wider national campaign.
“Behind the Foil” Gets a Creator-Led Update
Chipotle first introduced its “Behind the Foil” platform in 2019 as a way to show how employees prepare food and how ingredients move through its restaurants. The newest version keeps that transparency theme but changes who tells the story.
Instead of Chipotle directly explaining that its ingredients are fresh, creators enter the kitchen and capture the process themselves. They film vegetables being cut, meat being grilled and ingredients being assembled during daily preparation.
That gives the same brand message a different feel. Consumers are no longer only hearing the company talk about its food preparation. They are seeing independent creators document it in their own style.
Fernando Machado Makes His First Major Chipotle Advertising Move
The campaign also marks an important moment for Chipotle’s marketing leadership. Fernando Machado joined the company as chief brand officer in June 2026, and the 100-creator campaign is one of the first major national advertising efforts developed under his leadership.
Machado previously became known for unconventional marketing during his time at Restaurant Brands International. His work often pushed brands toward ideas designed to generate conversation rather than simply deliver polished advertising.
Allowing 100 creators to shape the visual direction of a national campaign fits that approach. Chipotle gave up some of the control normally associated with large advertising productions and allowed the creators’ own styles to influence how the brand appeared on screen.
Chipotle Is Increasing Its Creator Marketing Activity
The 100-creator campaign follows other recent moves by Chipotle in the creator space. Earlier in August, the company partnered with teenage YouTube creator Salish Matter on a digital-only Kid’s Meal collaboration aimed partly at younger consumers.
That campaign relied on a single recognizable creator. The new effort takes almost the opposite approach by spreading attention across 100 different personalities and creative communities.
The difference gives Chipotle more variety. Instead of relying on one creator’s audience, the brand can reach many smaller or overlapping communities while also generating a much larger amount of content.
Creator Distribution Is Part of the Strategy
The creators are not only acting as production partners. Their individual social channels also give Chipotle another way to distribute the campaign.
Each creator can share behind-the-scenes footage, edits or personal versions of the experience with followers who already know their style. That gives the brand content that may feel more natural inside a social feed than a traditional commercial.
For Chipotle, this creates two layers of reach. The company can run the campaign through paid television and digital advertising while the creators distribute related content through their own communities.
Why Chipotle’s 100-Creator Campaign Matters
Creator marketing has often worked as an extension of traditional advertising. A company develops the commercial first, then pays creators to talk about the same campaign on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube.
Chipotle has reversed much of that process. The creators generated the footage first, and the brand built its national advertising around that material.
That shift says something about how creator marketing is changing. Brands are increasingly interested in more than follower counts. They also want the storytelling style, editing language and creative instincts that creators have developed inside social platforms.
Chipotle’s campaign pushes that idea further than most. The company brought together 100 creators, opened more than 50 restaurant kitchens and collected hundreds of hours of footage without relying on conventional brand-shot material.
For creators, that is the more interesting part of the story. They are no longer being positioned only as promotional partners at the end of an advertising process. In this campaign, they became part of the production engine itself.
Sources
Marketing Dive:
https://www.marketingdive.com/news/chipotle-deploys-100-creators-for-latest-ads-spotlighting-fresh-food/829149/
Chipotle Newsroom:
https://newsroom.chipotle.com/2026-08-31-CHIPOTLE-HANDS-THE-CAMERAS-TO-100-CREATORS-FOR-ITS-NEW-NATIONAL-AD-CAMPAIGN