The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2024
Heinz turns Deadpool & Wolverine into ketchup and mustard — Media Gold
Rethink made summer's biggest movie sell Heinz for free: trailer, posters and cinema flashes turned the heroes into ketchup and mustard — sales up 2.9%, 8.5%.
Heinz (Kraft Heinz)
What it had to solve
Summer is Heinz's critical condiment season, but it is cluttered. In 2024 the season's biggest movie starred Deadpool in red and Wolverine in yellow — colors fans had already noticed matched Heinz ketchup and mustard exactly, making the resemblance a cultural joke waiting to be claimed.
How it works
Ahead of summer 2024, Heinz faced a cluttered season: own the condiment conversation or lose it. The year's biggest film, Deadpool & Wolverine, starred a red hero and a yellow hero whose costumes fans already compared to Heinz ketchup and mustard. Rather than buy product placement, Rethink hijacked the movie's own marketing.
It launched with what looked like a new Deadpool & Wolverine trailer on Marvel's official channels, until Heinz bottles began flashing in split-second blips and Ryan Reynolds, in an original voiceover, freeze-frames to realize even he can't unsee the comparison. The glitch then ran across Marvel's out-of-home in New York, LA, Toronto and Vancouver — bottles replacing the heroes under 'You Can't Unsee It' — followed by pre-movie cinema flashes, Disney+ bumpers with an Instacart discount, and collectibles that gave bottles Deadpool's katanas and Wolverine's claws.
The effect was a summer Heinz owned without a traditional media buy: more than a billion earned impressions, a 789% engagement rate on Heinz's Meta content, and 21,000 hours of trailer viewing. During the peak condiment season ketchup sales rose 2.9% and mustard 8.5%, with mustard dollar share up 12%, while fans dressed as bottles at the premiere and Comic-Con completed the loop the campaign had started.
Why it lands
- The resemblance already existed in fans' minds — Heinz only had to surface it, so the idea felt discovered rather than invented.
- Targeting Marvel's own media (trailer, OOH, cinema) meant the film's audience did the seeing and sharing for Heinz.
- The fake trailer turned an ad into entertainment by letting Ryan Reynolds play the punchline in-world.
- Every touchpoint repeated one visual joke — bottles as heroes — until the association became impossible to unsee.
- Closing with redeemable product (free bottles, Instacart) converted attention directly into condiment sales.
What it did
The campaign earned more than a billion media impressions (maad.com.cn reports 1.58B), with 789% engagement on Heinz's Meta content and 21,000 hours of trailer watch time. During the summer season ketchup sales rose 2.9% and mustard 8.5%, mustard dollar share rose 12%, and PR sentiment ran 100% positive/neutral — outperforming other Deadpool & Wolverine partners.
What you can take
When pop culture already resembles your product, you don't need the official partnership — occupy the IP's own marketing moments and let audiences make the connection themselves.
Since then
'Can't Unsee It' became one of 2024's most-awarded hijacks: Gold at the ATOM Awards 2025 in Video, Brand Integration and Collaboration plus Silver for Print/Out-of-home, a Cannes Lions 2025 Media Gold Lion, and a One Show 2026 Gold Pencil in Creative Effectiveness. It outperformed the movie's other brand partners, and the bottles-as-heroes imagery kept circulating through the film's streaming release — an ad that arrived before the product pitch and stayed longer than the premiere.
Sources
- Kraft Heinz x Deadpool & Wolverine 'You Can't Unsee It' — ATOM Awards 2025 winner
- 《红黄出击》——亨氏如何“劫持”《死侍与金刚狼》，成就一场文化级营销事件
- Ogilvy Singapore Tops 2026 One Show Pencil Winners with 9 Golds
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