Chipotle Camera Rule / Filming Hack

Submission 17,195

About

The Chipotle Camera Rule, also known as the Chipotle Phone Method, Filming at Chipotle Hack or Recording at Chipotle Hack, refers to a phenomenon of people bringing large and expensive camera equipment to Chipotle locations and recording the employees assembling their burrito or bowl, thereby, pretending like they're filming a video for social media to pressure the employee into giving bigger portions. Others have also simply used their phone to record. The "method" relied on an alleged "Chipotle Camera Rule" issued to employees that required them to give larger portions to people recording their orders. It was popularized on TikTok in 2024, then trended on Twitter / X and elsewhere online. As more people tried the method, influencers brought increasingly elaborate camera equipment to Chipotle to parody the concept. Memes about bringing cameras and filming at Chipotle trended en masse in June 2024.

Origin

Currently, the earliest discovered video about recording Chipotle employees to attain larger portions was posted by TikToker^[1] @aliyahrosee22 on May 17th, 2024, gaining over 28,800 plays and 520 likes in 17 days (shown below). The caption on the video read, "POV: record so you can get a respectable amount of chipotle."

Spread

On May 21st, 2024, TikToker^[2] @drewbaby00 posted a video in which she filmed at Chipotle, writing in the caption, "This is your sign to go to chipotle and record like an influencer while you order to get good amounts," gaining over 752,400 plays and 101,400 likes in 13 days (shown below, left).

Also on May 21st, TikToker^[3] @joebonham posted a video of himself filming at Chipotle, with text overlay reading, "I told the Chipotle employee I haven't eaten all day," gaining over 5.5 million plays and 661,400 likes in 13 days (shown below, right).

In the comment section of @joebonham's video, people claiming to be Chipotle employees alleged that a rule was implemented at Chipotle locations that if someone was recording their order, they should be granted larger portions. TikToker^[4] @wowdrew posted a video on May 22nd, regarding the aforementioned comments, receiving roughly 1.7 million plays and 278,800 likes in 12 days (shown below, left).

Also on May 22nd, 2024, TikToker^[5] @tik.tok.teacher posted a video about the alleged rule, amassing over 31.4 million plays and 2.9 million likes in 12 days (shown below, right).

Thereafter, TikTokers made memes about the alleged rule and method, such as TikToker^[6] @snazzycarlos on May 23rd, who brought a large movie camera to Chipotle, gaining over 5.6 million plays and 669,900 likes in 11 days (shown below, left).

On May 24th, 2024, the official Chipotle account posted a TikTok^[7] making fun of the trend, receiving over 7.7 million plays and 886,600 likes in 10 days (shown below, right).

On May 26th, X^[8] user @FearedBuck tweeted about the camera method at Chipotle, gaining over 55,000 likes in eight days. On June 1st, X^[9] user @kaneljoseph tweeted a different video, writing, "chipotle ain’t that good to be doing this 😭," gaining over 5,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Going into June 2024, memes about filming at Chipotle surfaced en masse on X, such as a post shared by X^[10] user @BingBongLLC on June 2nd, 2024, that captioned a man wearing professional camera equipment, "going to chipotle ya’ll need anything," gaining over 72,000 likes in a day (shown below).