A few years ago, Heinz Ketchup launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign noting its hundreds of uncredited appearances in major Hollywood movies including When Harry Met Sally and War Dogs.
Today, the condiment brand unveiled a more “subliminal” connection to one of the summer’s buzziest—and most advertised—blockbusters in a trailer for Marvel’s upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine.
Led by Rethink Toronto in collaboration with its New York office, as well as Ryan Reynolds’ agency Maximum Effort, the 45-second “Can’t Unsee It” trailer shows the yellow-suited Wolverine and red-suited Deadpool preparing for battle, except with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it representations of Heinz Ketchup and Mustard’s squeeze bottles.
The trailer comes to an abrupt halt as Reynolds breaks the fourth wall to address the blatant product placement. “I’m normally all-in on the legal and moral opaqueness of subliminal advertising, but not when it messes with my trailer. Got it?”
The spot resumes with a series of action scenes from the movie, except audiences see the respective character names as Heinz Mustard for Wolverine, and Heinz Ketchup for Deadpool. Reynolds critiques the product placement as “worse than subliminal” and “personally insulting” before responding to a final title scene showing the movie as Ketchup & Mustard: It Has to Be Heinz: “Someone’s getting sued so hard.”
The trailer notes that the condiments feature a “D” for delicious rating, and that consumers will be exposed to a “strong tomato and mustard taste throughout, hot dog and hamburger preferences.”
“We'd been in talks with the studio for a while to bring the idea to life but once it was green lit, the process was really fast and collaborative—a lot of text threads and hard work and dedication across the entire team,” said Dubrick.
Heinz also announced Monday that it has created a series of Ketchup and Mustard collectibles, including Wolverine’s iconic claws and Deadpool’s signature mask, suit and katanas. It is giving away a limited number of the collectives via social media.
“We wanted to do a sponsorship differently and we feel this does that,” said Dubrick. “It was super-important for us to be true to the characters and the tone of the franchise, while giving Heinz an authentic role to play. Heinz is amazing at understanding how to play a role in culture, not just interrupt it.”
Deadpool & Wolverine is expected to have a $200 million opening weekend later this month, the largest for an R-rated movie. The movie has already been featured in ads with brands including Heineken, The Bachelorette, and Aviation Gin.
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