Marketing

Chipotle’s newest product mocks customers who ‘accidentally’ fill water cups with lemonade

The burrito chain will start selling a “Water Cup Candle” that smells like lemonade. Customers who buy one can get free lemonade.
Chipotle lemonade candle
Chipotle will start selling a lemonade-scented "water cup" candle on Thursday. / Photo courtesy of Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Chipotle has long mocked customers who get a cup for free water and instead fill it with lemonade at the beverage station.

Now it is taking that effort to another level in its latest marketing bit: A “Water Cup Candle” that in fact smells like lemonade.

The Newport Beach, Calif.-based burrito chain said it would start selling the candle on its Chipotle Goods online store. The candle will be for sale starting on Thursday “while supplies last.” The candle looks like a Chipotle water cup that is filled with lemonade.

Each candle will feature a promo code redeemable for a free lemonade at the chain’s restaurants. The company is launching this new promotion in honor of National Lemonade Day on Saturday.

Chipotle has mocked customers in various tweets over the years such as this one:

And it once joked that it would sell a water cup candle that smelled like lemonade.

“Social is the premier destination for us to listen and engage with our superfans,” Chris Brandt, Chipotle’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement, noting that customers “feel even more connected” to the brand when they see this social chatter.

The burrito chain has used its social media to develop customer-inspired products, such as Cilantro Soap in December, which noted the percentage of the population who are genetically wired to experience a soapy flavor when they eat cilantro.

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