Chipotle Mexican Grill announced its participation at the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee with its very own spelling bee: Chipotle Bee, For Real.
Hosted by Justin Howard, Chipotle Bee, For Real took place on a specially-created stage and featured Chipotle’s 51 ingredients. Chipotle invited spellers to tackle one complex ingredient found at other restaurants, and one simple, real ingredient found at Chipotle. The competitor list included words like carrageenan, dimethylpolysiloxane and lecithin. Chipotle’s list included avocado, beef and cheese.
“Chipotle only uses real ingredients in its kitchens, and those ingredients tend to be simple to pronounce and easy to spell,” says Chris Brandt, Chief Marketing Officer of Chipotle. “However, other restaurants frequently use artificial or processed ingredients and preservatives that are often much more difficult to spell and say, so we highlighted this difference in a unique way at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.”
“Our spellers have voracious appetites for words and good food, and they were thrilled to have a chance on the Chipotle stage,” adds Valerie Miller, Communications Manager for the Bee. “We are also passionate about Chipotle’s mission of cultivating a better world, which we aim to achieve through the pursuit of education.”
Chipotle Bee, For Real incorporated 102 words which were complete with special pronunciation guidelines, definitions, origins and uses in a sentence. Spellers that were up for the challenge received prizes including exclusive Chipotle Bee pins, Chipotle Bee foil notebooks and Chipotle gift cards.
Chipotle’s presence at the Bee is consistent with its Behind the Foil campaign that launched this year. Behind the Foil focused on the transparency of Chipotle’s kitchens by featuring real employees cooking real food from real ingredients. This year’s national finalists can attest that eating real to cultivate a better world is as easy as it sounds.
