Chipotle Faked Its Twitter Hack

Last weekend, Chipotle's Twitter account seemed to have an existential breakdown, where it tweeted random things like "Please Twitter end Twitter" and "Do I have a Tweet?" Most of us chalked it up to some weird social media usage, a hack, or somebody losing their job because they let their grandmother play with their phone, but it turns out, that was all on purpose. Because they really need attention, it turns out.

Mashable reports that the brand has fessed up to faking their Twitter meltdown, all to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The concept of the celebration included a 20-day-long treasure hunt called "Adventurito," with 20 days of puzzles, and all the tweets were meant to tie into Sunday's puzzle about what Chipotle uses to make their guacamole.

"We thought that people would pay attention, that it would cut through people's attention and make them talk, and it did that," Chris Arnold, a Chipotle representative, told Mashable. "It was definitely thought-out: We didn't want it to be harmful or hateful or controversial."

And talk people did, but more in a bewildered way. But Arnold claims that Chipotle's Twitter account had 4,000 new followers the day of the crazy "hacked" tweets, while normally it only adds 250 followers a day. In fact, those hacked tweets have been retweeted some 12,000 times (a favorite being, "Please Twitter end Twitter.")

The stunt has been deemed so successful, the brand might just make shirts out of the most infamous lines. We personally like "Mittesn13 password leave."