A passing remark can mushroom into a movement, thanks to online "social media" outlets like Twitter.
Case in point: chipotlebreakfast.com.
Minnesotan Craig Key happened to remark on Twitter today that "if I had to pick one alternate form of currency other than the dollar, it would be Chipotle gift cards. Those will never lose value."
Fellow Minnesotan Jon Mierow chimed in, "Amen to Chipotle gift cards as currency. Now if we could only convince them to make breakfast burritos, life would be perfect."
That's when all heck broke loose.
The local Twitterverse has a number of burrito worshippers (myself included), and they took it upon themselves to launch a Chipotle-breakfast-burrito crusade.
A Twitter-based discussion (with the #chipotlebreakfast codeword or "hashtag" embedded into tweets for tracking, courtesy of St. Paul PR operative Mike Keliher) kicked into high gear.
This was the launching pad for a Bring Breakfast Burritos to Chipotle Now blog (with an invitation to guest bloggers).
There's a chipotle_brkfast identity on Twitter, courtesy of Key. He set up a Facebook page, as well.
This isn't a movement along the lines of Al Gore's crusade to fight global warming, to be sure, but it's a fascinating example of a grassroots campaign with social-media underpinnings that took off in virtually no time.
How active it will be on Day Two and thereafter remains to be seen, but what a Day One!
No response from Chipotle yet, by the way. Here's hoping!
By the way, today is Burrito Avatar Friday, my tongue-in-cheek weekly observance, during which my regular Twitter avatar is replaced with a mouth-watering burrito. Happy BAF, everyone!
Update: Dang! Chipotle says no to the breakfast burrito:
Thanks for writing us back. That’s a nice blog! That’s fun! But alas, although we have indeed considered breakfast in the past already and will again undoubtedly in the future, we’re still doing our best to figure out and continue lunch and dinner right now. The objective with our mission isn’t to complicate things further just yet but to actually make them more simple, as much as we possibly can. Breakfast would unfortunately be a complication right now. That doesn’t mean we won’t ever do it in the future, or that we won’t stay open all night at some locations either, or add new menu items, etc., etc. But right now, we want to keep focusing on improving the current ingredients we have and making them better and better and better.
Update: Undeterred, unbowed and undaunted, the Bring Breakfast Burritos to Chipotle Now blog keeps right on bloggin'.
Update: Social Media Movement 1-2-3 (great recap by Craig Key).
Update: I add my two cents to the Bring Breakfast Burritos to Chipotle Now blog (thanks for the guest-blogger access, Craig).
