Twitter Is Mystified By Chipotle's Vague Code Message
Twitter can be such a bossypants know-it-all that sometimes it's kinda nice to see it mystified by something, isn't it? Luckily for burrito-lovers everywhere, Twitter's confusion often comes in the form of Chipotle, a restaurant whose Twitter channel has been mystifying social media at large since at least 2013. Back then, HuffPost was only too happy to report the summer scandal in which Chipotle's Twitter account, @ChipotleTweets, had apparently been hacked by some fast-casual sort-of-Mexican-food vigilante was all a ruse. It turns out that Chipotle itself had propagated the weird tweets — things like, "Hi sweetie, can you please pick up some lime, salt, and onions? twitter," — that fateful summer, and that the whole stunt was a PR person's idea of good marketing leading up to the company's 20th anniversary.
The world — particularly the world of Twitter — has grown decidedly more cynical since that bizarre cry for attention and one has to wonder if the faked Chipotle Twitter hack of 2013 would hold water in 2022. Then again, here we are: mired in another confusing series of tweets from @ChipotleTweets, wondering what to believe, who to trust, and whether or not to get emotionally invested in what could be another complicated publicity stunt... or simply a social media manager who fell asleep on her keyboard. Let's get into it.
Cryptic culinary communications
On June 2, Chipotle tweeted, "Code dropping when ??" and subsequently replied, to itself, "Tonight during the," followed by nine black squares, indicating a hangman-esque version of fill-in-the-blank for followers. A whole bunch of users replied with variations on the them "now," hoping Chipotle wouldn't drag Twitter through another drawn-out, cryptic series of vague tweets before ultimately (hopefully) rewarding followers with a code for, say, free tacos. With almost 2k likes and dozens of retweets, there is at least some appetite out there for a good mystery (or at least a good burrito), and the spacing of blanks in the subsequent tweet led some users to think their questions might be answered during the NBA Finals.
According tp an article on Medium, Flexa made the big announcement on June 1 that Chipotle restaurants across the country would now be accepting digital currency in exchange for burrito bowls, a statement that was met with digital snaps across the inter-verse, no doubt. The digital currency platform also offered 10% discounts to those willing to pay bitcoin for burritos, and Chipotle playfully tweeted that, "Guac is about 0.000088 bitcoin, is that okay?" Is the restaurant's code tweet related? Should we all be ensuring our AI avatars have the Flexa app and a unique Twitter handle to be sure they don't miss an opportunity to text a secret password to their nearest fast casual Mexican food restaurant for free tortilla chips? Let's let Twitter marinate over this one for a while.