The primary goal of this campaign was to raise awareness around human welfare in farming.

10 years ago, Johnny Kelly directed the stop-motion animated short 'Back to the Start' as part of Chipotle's Cultivate a Better World campaign. Based on a true story, the short followed 'Pa', a farmer who loses his way and turns his family farm into a factory farm. Witnessing his mistake, he goes back to the start, turning his farm into a sustainable, compassionate one, thus highlighting the food industry's dismal state of affairs.

'Back to the Start' was a resounding success across metrics, and we wanted the sequel 'A Future Begins' to surpass that. In our new story Pa's son is all grown up and leaves the farm to strike out on his own, but he feels the pull of the farm and comes back to embrace it now as the lead farmer. He stays true to Pa’s values, but given all he’s learned he takes it to another level — with the help of modern farming techniques, community and business know-how. It was important for us to tell the evolution of this family farm's story. We wanted to shed light on the challenges that family-run farms face, and inspire the next generation to take up the baton.

The production consisted of 10 different sets, featuring 82 tiny resin puppets including 12 sheep, 10 cows, 12 pigs, 10 chickens, 12 farm helpers, 10 characters on campus and 16 audience members all captured in one fluid camera move. Johnny’s commitment to authenticity ensured only real world farming techniques used by Chipotle suppliers were depicted. These include solar panels to provide shade for animals, plots of land dedicated to rewilding and polytunnels to cover Chipotle’s traffic light crop of peppers.

'A Future Begins' was made to speak directly to the young generations and thus its placement reflected a knowingness. The results were astounding, with over 50 million views on social media including 30 million alone from TikTok, and 15,000 combined comments.