Heinz forgoes pricey Super Bowl ad to give employees a day off as it looks to make 'Smunday' a national holiday
Heinz Ketchup will not be stumping up millions for a Super Bowl ad slot this year, instead giving its employees the day after the Big Game off and encouraging others to do the same.
The condiment company is going to give salaried employees Super Bowl Monday off as a holiday instead of paying out for one of the coveted 30-second ads. To coincide with the move, Heinz has produced an online spot, which won’t run on TV, featuring talking ketchup and mustard bottles (above).
The food giant has even started a petition to get 6 February recognized as a national holiday, imploring customers to sign a Change.org petition to get make 'Smunday' a thing.
"We can all agree that going to work the Monday after the Big Game on Sunday is awful. So as far as we’re concerned at Heinz, we as a nation should stop settling for it being the worst work day of the year," reads the petition.
"Statistics show over 16 million people call in sick or just don’t show up to work. And for those that do, productivity plummets so far that the country loses on average around $1bn (true story). Enough with the madness," it continues.
If the campaign attracts over 10,000 signatures the brand says it will deliver it to Congress.