CHIPOTLE ad during hockey game made stunning use of mixed-reality tech

When the action paused between periods at the May 19 National Hockey League Stanley Cup playoff game between the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues, viewers watching the contest on TNT were gob-smacked to see a giant hand break through the ice and grab a Chipotle burrito bowl. It looked spookily real, but it was actually a carefully crafted bit of video make-believe employing mixed-reality computing—a tech advancement that blends the physical with the digital to let humans interact with seemingly natural 3D environments. What made this Chipotle ad particularly effective was how perfectly it mimicked (just before the giant hand appeared) the look and sounds of a hockey arena with the ice cleared of players during a between-periods break. As a result, few (if any) viewers realized that the live view of the arena had given way to the Chiptole commercial.