Most companies use advertisements to promote their products and services. We’re used to seeing giant billboards while we drive, or ads on the sides of buses. Having such large-scale promotion makes their products highly visible, but it also calls attention to the imaging they use to promote the product.
Popular brand Heinz — known best in the US for its ketchup — is under fire in the United Kingdom over an ad for tomato sauce featuring a family where the bride’s Black father is noticeably absent. People are pointing out that the image perpetuates the myth that Black fathers aren’t present for their families.
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The ad is very tongue-in-cheek.
In the ad, a Black bride is sitting front and center at the table, eating a plate of spaghetti with red sauce during what appears to be her wedding reception. On one side are two white people presumed to be her in-laws, looking horrified, while on the other side is her white groom, looking uncomfortable and her Black mother looking mildly embarrassed. The ad is part of a campaign to promote the brand’s new jarred pasta sauces. However, many are concerned that it perpetuates a myth about Black fathers that isn’t actually true.
People noticed that one family member was missing.
British writer Nels Abbey, shared a picture of the ad from a London Underground station on X (formerly Twitter).
“For my brothers with daughters,” he wrote. “Because, believe it or not, Black girls have Dads too.”
One person replied to the tweet saying, “Total erasure of Black fathers by such a mainstream brand is shocking. How did this get approved?“
Many people expressed their frustration with the ad.
Hundreds commented on the tweet, with many agreeing that it sends the wrong message.
“It’s subliminal messaging,” one person wrote. “It’s a ‘subtle’ way of perpetuating myths. The media have been doing this for years. One of the benefits of SM, is that these narratives will be challenged @HeinzUK you should be embarrassed.”
Another person commented: “Really triggered by the same poster at Manor House. Absolutely outrageous @HeinzUK. Can’t even avoid buying your product because I wouldn’t want a jar of additives anyway.”
“Yet more erasure and stereotypes,” someone else wrote. “I know more black people with present dads than without. Absentee fathers exist but they are not the majority or the single story or our community. Shame on @HeinzUK.”
Another comment reads: “I said the same thing. Like yes it’s beautiful the interracial relationship and they wanted to keep five people on the table but the erasure of black dads is not fair.”
Heinz released an apology after the backlash.
The company released an apology that was published by UK-based newspaper The Independent.
“We always appreciate members of the public’s perspective on our campaigns,” the statement began. “We understand how this ad could have unintentionally perpetuated negative stereotypes. We extend our deepest apologies and will continue to listen, learn, and improve to avoid this happening again in the future.”
“This would’ve gone through many rounds of approval, both by the ad agency and Heinz itself,” one person commented in response, as reported by Atlanta Black Star. “This was without a doubt intentional.”
The ad agency tried to explain the reasoning, but it fell flat.
The ad was created by Spanish agency VML to celebrate love of Heinz sauces by people that may seem unexpected. There is a note on the ad that it is “Based on a true story.”
“The new family size range deserved doubling down on humour and evolving the brand’s visual code to make room for showing unexpected families enjoying the product irresistibility,” executive creative director Paco Badia said recently in an interview. “Keeping the Ridiculously Good platform ownable tone of voice.”
They might want to try a different kind of “unexpected” family next time.
