This morning, restaurant chain Chipotle opened its annual Chipotle IQ trivia contest. If you answer all 10 online questions correctly, you may win a buy-one-get-one-free coupon, and 50 people will win “free burritos for a year.”
You should definitely cheat on this test.
Here are the answers to the current questions:
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True
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100 million
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Over $340,00
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Juniper berries
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Quesadilla
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All of the above
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Environmental impact
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All of the above
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Poblano pepper
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Cilantro
Chipotle is likely to change the questions over the next few days—the contest runs until Thursday.
Here are a couple rules of thumb from the first round: If you can answer “all of the above” you should, and if the answer is a number that makes Chipotle look good, pick the highest one. Otherwise, keep a browser window open and google it.
Chipotle’s “IQ test” is bogus and weak
Like actual IQ tests, Chipotle’s trivia quiz doesn’t actually measure anything and offers limited rewards for high scores. Only 5,000 people per hour are given the BOGO deal, and even if you win one, you’d better get to a Chipotle quick—according to the official rules, “BOGO Codes expire on August 29, 2024.”
Everyone else gets 25 reward points, no matter how many questions you get right. To give you an idea of how little that is, a humble cheese quesadilla at Chipotle is 1,650 points.
Even the grand prize, “Free burritos for a year,” is weak. It’s actually 52 burritos, not “all the burritos you can eat in a year.” That’s a grand prize worth $517.40.
So in exchange for a small chance to win negligible prizes, Chipotle gets your email address and phone number, giving them the chance to market to you in the future. You are not getting the better end of this deal, unless you keep yourself anonymous.
You can sign up for Chipotle IQ anonymously
There’s nothing stopping you from signing up for the Chipotle quiz/loyalty program with a burner email address and a Google voice number for the verification code.
This opts you out of the “being marketed to” part of the deal. But just setting foot inside a Chipotle to “get one free” is a win for the fast food chain, because you’re probably going to drop some extra money on side orders, or go with a friend who will spend something.
To sum up: To get the most out of Chipotle’s IQ trivia contest, you should eat at a locally owned Mexican restaurant instead.
