The condiments and baked beans giant is working to remove a US ad that depicts a black man with large, red-sauce coloured lips, which critics argue resembles the old Minstrel blackface ads. It’s the second Heinz ad in a week to be pulled.
Heinz has been forced to pull an ad amid accusations it perpetuates racist tropes.
The outdoor campaign, “Smiles” by Gut New York, depicts a black man and other white actors with Heinz ketchup coating their lips with the tagline “It ha ha has to be Heinz.”
The campaign is designed to tap into hype surrounding the launch of the second Joker film, Folie à Deux, but the stunt is unlikely to have left the DC villain, and Heinz shareholders, laughing.
Critics point out the ad is reminiscent of the old minstrel ads in the 19th century that depict a white man in black face with large red lips.
The imagery is also similar to images of golliwog dolls that are largely taboo with a few exceptions in small pockets of New South Wales and Essex.
A Kraft Heinz spokesperson told the UK trade title PRWeek that they apologise for any offence caused and are ”actively listening and learning”
“Although it was intended to resonate with a current pop-culture moment, we recognise that this does not justify the hurt it may have caused. We will do better. We are working to remove the advertisement immediately.”
Antonio Lewis, creative director multicultural, Studio Resonate at SXM Media, said the creative should have been halted in its tracks throughout the “exhaustive” process between ideation and execution.
“Creative can’t simply check off a few boxes—it must check them all,” he said in a post on LinkedIn. “Great creative should not perpetuate historical racism, it should not alienate audiences, and it should not be tone-deaf to cultural sensitivities, it should not provoke harmful associations, and it should not disregard the broader context in which it exists.”
Andre Grey, the chief creative officer at US agency Annex88 added: “How are we still lacking the diverse teams and cultural competency to have the semiotics of our imagery properly scrutinised BEFORE it gets out in the world?”
This latest controversy follows the take down of another Heinz ad, by VML, where the bride – a black woman – is seated between her groom, his parents and her mother, with no father of the bride present.
Heinz apologised for that ad, admitting that it understood “how this ad could have unintentionally perpetuate negative stereotypes”.
