Chipotle's Portion Control Controversy on TikTok: What Happened and Why It Matters
TikTok can make or break your company in 2024. Brands are taking notice, and this is a great example. TikTok Food Influencer Keith Lee did a review of Chipotle recently. He said essentially: Listen, I used to love Chipotle. Let's go. He not only talked about the fact that his food is cold, but there’s a moment where he’s digging around this burrito bowl and finds two pieces of chicken.
"Two cold pieces of chicken in this entire bowl," he said. It started a discussion on TikTok where many users stated that nowadays when they went to Chipotle, they weren’t getting real servings that you would expect of protein and other ingredients, and that the bowls would be very low on servings altogether or just rice.
THE CONSUMER BACKLASH AND ORGANIZED RESPONSE
Following this, a group of TikTokers organized and said, if you go to Chipotle and they’re not serving you appropriately, just walk out. The model at Chipotle is that you order, go through an assembly line of them making your food, and then you pay for it. This initiative suggested that if you receive two pieces of chicken in your bowl, you just leave because you’re not going to pay for that.
TIKTOKERS FILM THEIR EXPERIENCE
Many people were also filming themselves doing that. They would go in, film the two pieces of chicken, the half serving of beans, whatever the case may be. Chipotle caught wind of it. Now, whenever anyone breaks their phone out, they load up because they’re aware that it’s going viral on social media, that they’re charging what they’re charging for smaller and smaller portions, and they’re trying to correct the narrative.
But that’s not all— the CEO of TikTok had to come out and make a statement. And now that’s going viral, too. (Check out this hysterical spoof—which has 14.8M views and nails exactly how it’s being received).
Brands are increasingly under the microscope due to the power and influence of social media. All eyes are on Chipotle, but if they Keith Lee video had been elevated and taken seriously sooner (because he can make or break brands), this might not have gone as far as it did.
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