The Crazy Way Heinz Is Marketing For The Super Bowl

Super Bowl LI is coming up fast which means two things: a day of awesome food and commercials, and a horrible Monday to follow. Nobody likes going to work after the weekend in general, but especially not after the biggest Sunday night celebration of the year. Well, Heinz is sick of that feeling! They don't make ketchup and other condiments to make people feel depressed, and Heinz execs made it their mission this year to eliminate that post-NFL Monday entirely. Check out the ad below about their mission statement and about how you can make it a reality.

It's actually provable that nobody likes going to work the day after the Super Bowl. According to statistics, over 16 million people call out sick, causing a drop in productivity leading the country to lose upwards of $1 billion (probably). Heinz doesn't settle when it comes to food so why should they settle in life? Rather than accept that Monday is the worst day, they've decided to make it more like a Sunday-Monday: a Smunday. This coming February 6, no one should have to lie about being sick.

Employees everywhere should be able to skip work that day, and Heinz wants you to help make Smunday a national holiday. They admit it's been tried before, but this isn't some pipe dream from a ketchup company just doing a brilliant ad for the Super Bowl. They've set up a petition on change.org (and yes, this is totally real) and if they reach their goal of 100,000 signatures, they'll send the petition to Congress. As of the time of this writing, there are already almost 36,000 signatures out of 50,000. On February 6, Heinz will be leading by example and giving all their employees at the Heinz offices the day off. Let's make Smunday a reality, people!

In all seriousness, this might be my favorite Super Bowl ad in a while. It's got this silly overconfidence that plays really strongly. The video itself is next to perfect and it's filled with tons of great gags like the depressed sea lion, the guy who refuses to eat the naked hot dog, or the Grandpa Ketchup being an older design. This video hit a lot of sweet spots for me, and I hope they hit their signature goal. Smunday will likely never ever be an official thing, but it's fun to dream.

Like everyone at Heinz, don't let the following work day keep you from enjoying game day. Plus, you can always call out sick if you feel you really aren't up for the Monday commute. Super Bowl LI will feature the New England Patriots against the Atlanta Falcons, and it airs Sunday, February 5, at 6:30 p.m. EST on FOX.

Matt Wood

Matt has lived in New Jersey his entire life, but commutes every day to New York City. He graduated from Rowan University and loves Marvel, Nintendo, and going on long hikes and then greatly wishing he was back indoors. Matt has been covering the entertainment industry for over two years and will fight to his dying breath that Hulk and Black Widow make a good couple.