I’ve never been a Chipotle fan. Amy got a hankering for the stuff when she was pregnant, which I ascribed to something like a pickle yearning.

Now the hackey-sack burrito-eating hipsters that South Park so effectively slammed four years ago are hitting out at factory farming and big food – except Chipotle is big food.

But, the chain – and it is a chain, with more than 1500 storefronts and $800 million in revenue last year — never misses a chance to appropriate a trend.

According to The Atlantic, last week Chipotle released an animated short as a marketing campaign. Sites like The New York Times, NPR, Slate, etc., posted the video, most with glowing endorsements (Bruce Horovitz at USA Today: “Chipotle is about to turn the ad world on its head“; Peter Weber at The Week: “It is the most beautiful, haunting infomercial you’ll ever see”; Carey Polis at The Huffington Post: “Chipotle Scarecrow Ad Will Make You Feel All the Feelings“; Neetzan Zimmerman atGawker: “All other ads should just give up.”)

Local food, GMO-free, no antibiotics, animal welfare friendly, it’s all there.

But Chipotle misses the microbiological mark.

Chipotle, tell consumers what you are, not what you aren’t. Microbiologically speaking.

The video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUtnas5ScSE.

I prefer this one, from Funny or Die, and available at http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/da66b8f1aa/honest-scarecrow.