The campaign “Heinz Smiles”an idea by Gut New York worked with the in-house agency The Kitchen, shows three people enjoying their hamburger, fries and hot dog with the brand’s ketchup. But due to its launch ahead of the Halloween celebration, they enjoy evil smiles and lips dyed by the product, in a subtle allusion to the terror that clowns cause for many.
Creativity is accompanied by copy with the words It Ha-Ha-Has to be Heinzreferring to the global brand platform “It Has to Be Heinz” which was launched last year.
It is about a global campaign which will be disseminated both in digital media and abroad and on social networks, in markets such as the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Italy. And with it the brand has once again raised controversy after having to apologize for not showing the father of a black bride in the image of the wedding table.
Now the criticism is towards the photograph of the black boy enjoying his hamburger in this new Heinz campaign for Halloween, starring three people, two of which are white.
Although the Heinz campaign aims to celebrate the season of halloween Making references to films such as “Joker” or “Smile”, many people have seen in the image a resemblance to historically racist practices. “Are we going to act like blackface doesn’t exist and wasn’t established long before the Joker?”comments an Instagram user. The use of blackface paint has been a historical practice that today is considered racist and deeply offensive. There have been many who have seen in Heinz’s image that shows a black boy a reminiscence of that blackface.
There have been many who have seen in the image of the black boy a reminiscence of “blackface.”
The practice refers to when someone, usually white-skinned, paints his face a darker color to look like a black person. It was a way in which, 200 years ago, banks mocked black people for their entertainment and thus promoted negative stereotypes in the United States and Europe. “I woke up to this new Heinz campaign in one of my group chats and asked myself, “Is it me or is it almost blackface?”wrote Andre Gray, Creative Director at Annex88, in a post on LinkedIn. “How is it that we still lack diverse equipment and cultural competence so that the semiotics of our images are properly vetted before they go out into the world. From agency to client, to production, to media… no one said, maybe we should move away from minstrel shows and blackface connotations?”
The company has apologized, as stated in the advertising magazine. AdAge, and they claim to be working to remove the ad. “We are a consumer-obsessed company and, as such, we listen and learn. We sincerely apologize for any offense our campaign may have caused. While our intention is for it to resonate with the current moment in popular culture, we admit that it is no excuse for the damage we may have caused.”
From reason.Why We have contacted both the brand and the Gut agency to obtain an assessment from them and we will expand this news as soon as we have a response from them.
This is the second controversy that Heinz faces in a few days. This same week the brand received harsh criticism for one of the images of “Family Portraits”a campaign launched with the aim of advertising its family-sized pasta sauce. The absence of the bride’s father at the wedding table has been denounced by the black community in the United Kingdom, arguing that the image perpetuates negative stereotypes about black fathers.

It should be noted that in the United Kingdom the Black History Monthso consumer sensitivity could be more alert if possible, given that negative reactions and accusations have continued to be generated towards the brand for perpetuating racist stereotypes.