Chipotle Mexican Grill just recorded a song at Abbey Road with a jalapeño trumpet and an onion bass.
The Mexican food chain just released "From Ground to Sound," an original track cut in Studio Two at Abbey Road Studios on instruments made entirely from fresh vegetables.
The song first surfaced in the closing frames of the chain's 100 Creators ads in August and will return as a signature sound in select campaigns.
The brand partnership with the London Vegetable Orchestra, a five-member ensemble of classically trained musicians, supplied the players.
Chief Brand Officer Fernando Machado explained why the chain pushed through with the creative.
"What made this worth pursuing was the chance to create a track that felt impossible to separate from Chipotle itself," he said.
KIDS led creative direction, and Founder and Chief Creative Officer Icaro Doria framed the concept as a question.
"Millions of people know Chipotle's ingredients by how they look, taste, and smell. Very few have ever stopped to ask what they sound like," he said.
Instruments With a One-Day Shelf Life
The effort was nothing short of experimental and enticing.
The instruments used included corn flutes, jalapeño trumpets, a horn made from peppers and an avocado pit, lettuce percussion, and an onion bass.
To tie the campaign to the brand, the instruments were all built from produce found in Chipotle restaurants.
Creating them took three months of experimentation and dozens of iterations, as the musicians tested how corn, jalapeños, and bell peppers could produce usable notes.
Fresh produce changes in shape, texture, and moisture, so each instrument had to be built at peak ripeness and stays playable for less than a day.
That left a narrow window to assemble, tune, rehearse and record.
Beacon Street Studios created the composition, which draws on the energy of vegetables growing from seeds into food.
Fans can stream the track on Spotify and Apple Music and watch the full film online.
Chipotle is not the first food brand to chase fans through music.
Popeye's recently pursued a musical approach to put its fried chicken back into the picture.
Meanwhile, Chili's recruited Lizzo in May to remake its Baby Back Ribs jingle, with the singer co-writing and co-producing the track and playing a rib-shaped flute in the video.
Different executions, same concept; they all prove music's potential to carry a brand forward.
Chipotle Gives Its Menu a Voice
Sound gives a brand known for how its food looks and tastes a third sense to own.
This is important as Chipotle rebuilds traffic: second-quarter comparable restaurant sales rose 2.2%, according to the company's earnings release.
A MassiveMusic and IPA study of 150 campaign films found that music unexpected in the context of an ad can be up to 5x better at driving brand fame.
Several lessons stand out for marketers building a signature sound:
- Tie the sound to a product truth: Instruments made from menu ingredients let the track back up the freshness claim without a voiceover.
- Tease before you launch: The snippet at the end of the 100 Creators ads gave fans an early listen and set up the full release.
- Plan for reuse: A recording that returns in select campaigns spreads its production cost across future ads.
The test for Chipotle now is whether audiences can recognize its song in Chipotle's next campaign — regardless of whether veggies were used or not.
Our Take: Can Chipotle Own the Sound of Fresh?
Nobody has ever asked a customer to listen to the kitchen's symphony of knives on cutting boards and spoons on steel pans.
We think Chipotle is smart to give that noise a melody it can claim.
Every chain prints the word fresh on a wall, and a slogan is easy to copy.
However, a song played on a lettuce drum is not.
We expect rivals to go looking for signature sounds of their own, and few have a prep line that makes noise this good.
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