Heinz apologizes and pulls ad with imagery reminiscent of blackface

Heinz apologized on Monday for a ketchup campaign that critics said contained imagery that had echoes of blackface and minstrel shows. Heinz said it would pull the ads immediately. The European campaign, called “Smiles,” broke last week—the first work out of Gut’s just-opened New York office. The ads featured people grinning with ketchup smeared around their mouths. “It ha ha has to be Heinz,” said the headline on the ads, evidently a reference to the new “Joker: Folie à Deux” movie. But some observers immediately took issue with the campaign, particularly the ad featuring a Black man, saying the imagery was strongly reminiscent of blackface and minstrel shows from the 19th and early 20th centuries, where Black men—as portrayed by white actors—were given exaggerated, clownish features, often including large red lips. “How are we still lacking the diverse teams and cultural competency to have the semiotics of our imagery properly scrutinized BEFORE it gets out in the world?” Andre Gray, chief creative officer at Annex88, wrote on LinkedIn on Sunday. “Black people have been ... stereotyped and dehumanized long before the Joker, and much, much more often than the Joker.” In a statement to Ad Age, parent company Kraft Heinz apologized for the campaign. “As a consumer-obsessed company, we are actively listening and learning, and sincerely apologize for any offense caused by our recent ‘Smiles’ campaign,” a Kraft Heinz spokesman said. “Although it was intended to resonate with a current pop culture moment, we recognize that this does not excuse the hurt it may have caused. We will do better. We are working to remove the advertisement immediately.” A rep for Gut referred inquiries to Kraft Heinz. The “Smiles” ads had been running in Europe, in markets including the U.K., Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Italy. This is the second time in a matter of days that Heinz has apologized for a campaign deemed racially insensitive. The first campaign, created by VML for Heinz pasta sauces in the U.K., was criticized for perpetuating stereotypes about absent Black fathers—by showing a newly married couple with the groom’s white parents and only the bride’s Black mother. "For my brothers with daughters"Because, believe it or not, Black girls have Dads too. pic.twitter.com/LngrCCZ4rW— Nels Abbey (@nelsabbey) October 4, 2024 Heinz offered its “deepest apologies” for that ad and said it “will continue to listen, learn and improve to avoid this happening again in the future.”

Heinz apologizes and pulls ad with imagery reminiscent of blackface

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