Hillary Rodham Clinton took to the presidential campaign trail more like a celebrity traveling incognito than a politician glad-handing voters as she stopped by a Chipotle restaurant for lunch without drawing a crowd or even being noticed.
The former secretary of state made the unannounced pit stop Monday at a Chipotle outside Toledo during her “Scooby” van road trip from New York to Iowa. It would have gone completely unnoticed if not for a Clinton campaign aide tipping off The New York Times, which contacted the restaurant and obtained security camera footage of Mrs. Clinton wearing sunglasses while waiting in line for a burrito bowl.
The scene was the antithesis of retail politicking — the face-to-face campaigning that Team Clinton has said will be the hallmark of her strategy in Iowa and New Hampshire.
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“I think it made her look foolish,” said Sandy Rubinstein, an expert on branding and CEO of the advertising firm DXagency, which has a client list that includes HBO, the New York Knicks and Welch’s Fruit Snacks.
She said the Clinton campaign botched an opportunity to rebrand the former first lady, senator and top diplomat as a woman of the people, an image Mrs. Clinton has taken pains to project in the early days of her run.
“I think they had an opportunity to keep pushing that everyday-woman brand, but nobody recognized her, nobody really stopped her, nobody took advantage of the fact that here’s Hillary Clinton standing in front of us — let’s talk to her,” said Ms. Rubinstein.
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The ad guru insisted that the campaign planned for someone to recognize Mrs. Clinton, who is the undisputed front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“All the stops have a business reason behind them. She wasn’t hungry for a burrito,” said Ms. Rubinstein. “I think it’s an opportunity to see Hillary Clinton not eating the fanciest affair but the same thing that anyone else [or] any voters would be eating.”
Lynn Vavreck, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, agreed that the Chipotle stop raised questions about the Clinton campaign’s stagecraft.
“Why you don’t send your personal assistant to do that, I don’t know,” said Ms. Vavreck, who specializes in the study of retail politics in presidential campaigns.
In the Chipotle security camera footage, Mrs. Clinton is standing beside her longtime aide, Huma Abedin.
Mrs. Clinton made her retail politicking debut Tuesday, with a prearranged visit to Jones Street Coffee Shop in Davenport, Iowa, where she sipped Chai tea and chatted with a group of preselected customers.
“Hi, everybody. Thank you for having us and all of these people. I love it,” Mrs. Clinton said as she strode into the shop.
“Hi, Jen. Hi, Paul,” she called out to the people behind the counter, including co-owner Jen Williams, according to a pool report.
The stage-managed campaign stop contrasted sharply with the unannounced visit to Chipotle.
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