The Flop Chipotle Pride Campaign That Was Offensive On So Many Levels

Every Pride month, companies come out of the woodwork to voice their support of the LGBTQ community. Sometimes, the messages seem genuine, while other times they seem like a bit of a cash grab. Last year, a Reddit user called into question how others felt about these businesses' (seemingly) once-a-year support. "What's your take on companies using Pride month in their marketing?" they asked. One commenter felt like the tactic is "profit-driven" though "[they'd] still rather have the corporations on [their] side on a given issue than be against [them]." 

Another commenter felt like the support was totally fake. "They don't give a s**t about LGBT people, it's all for profit," they wrote.

Plenty of brands still put forth the effort in June regardless. In 2021, Burger King donated all the month's proceeds from its Ch'King to the Human Rights Campaign (via Restaurant Business Online). In 2020, Oreo sold rainbow cookies and aired commercials highlighting supportive families (per CNN). Many of these efforts are seen as positive and inclusive, but when Chipotle tried something similar, it didn't go over well in the eyes of the LGBTQ community (via Insider).

Just after the 2015 legalization of gay marriage, Chipotle launched its ¿homo estás? campaign to catch the attention of LGBTQ diners (via Yahoo). Revealed in a tweet, representatives from the brand visited numerous pride parades to hand out coupons that read "which way do you sway?" On either side of the question, there were wearable buttons that read "I eat tacos," and "I eat burritos."

After the brand posted a photo of a rainbow wrapped burrito with the caption "¿homo estás?" many fans left comments showing their disgust of the promotion. "This is probably the biggest pandering job I've ever seen, who in the marketing team thought it was remotely close to any sort of a good idea??" one person wrote. One Twitter user felt the post was all about promotion. "At this point I don't even think it's about being an ally, I just think y'all wanna make viral tweets to get attention," they wrote.

Chris Arnold, a spokesperson for Chipotle, did apologize in a statement to Business Insider, if that counts for anything. The apology read, "If there are some who find it insensitive, we certainly apologize for that." Today, the original tweet still circulates Twitter and causes a stir every now and then.