- Heinz has released “Penalty Packets” to get in on the World Cup soccer mania as the tournaments reaches its climax
- The red and yellow card-inspired packets tap into the biggest US Soccer headline coming out of the tournament involving government meddling to overturn a FIFA rule
I don’t necessarily look to Heinz for incisive social commentary. Like most people, I simply look to Heinz for condiments. That said, their marketing team isn’t afraid to flex in funky ways, like in Heinz Brazil’s “Grandma’s Darling” Mayonnaise campaign, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and in the brand’s recent cheeky packaging response to FIFA’s “brand protection” policy. And now, with their latest “Penalty Packets” campaign, they’re diving headfirst into one of the biggest hot-button issues of the moment: red cards.
Penalty Packets are Heinz’s latest contribution to the vast, seemingly endless landscape of World Cup products and activations. The concept is simple: extra-large red and yellow packets filled with ketchup and mustard, respectively. Fun! These bad boys hold twice the amount of standard-sized packets, which is why you need them when a “foul on flavor” is committed. Corny? Yes. Inadvertently tapping into one of the biggest stories coming out of the World Cup that reaches far beyond the sport itself? Also yes!
While I’m sure Heinz was merely having some fun with the Penalty Packets campaign, the president of the United States took it upon himself to co-opt the concept of red cards at this summer’s World Cup. *This* is why we can’t have nice things (not even red cards…) In short, when one of our US Men’s National Team players, Folarin Balogun, received a red card that would force him to miss the US’s next knock-out stage game, Trump, who, by the way, knows less than my cat about the sport of soccer, thought it was appropriate to get the President of FIFA (and fellow corrupt ego-maniac), Gianni Infantino, on the horn, to make that whole red card thing go away. And he did!
ESPN reported that Trump said he didn’t actually know what a red card was or what its consequences were, but when he found out it could keep one of the US’s best goal-scorers from their round-of-16 match against Belgium, “he felt compelled to intervene.” Sounds like our president to me!
The “Leader of the Free World” meddling in the matters of a soccer game (albeit an important one) is, simply put, not okay and deeply uncool. One would think he has bigger fish to fry as POTUS, but what do I know? The fact that the US is hosting this World Cup adds another layer of messiness to the scandal, not to mention the countless other morally corrupt actions by both FIFA and the US government that are unfolding as we speak. You know, like, all the war crimes and stuff.
But as they say in sports, ball don’t lie: Despite Trump’s bullying to get Balogun’s game ban lifted, Belgium proceeded to galvanize around this injustice against them and spank our US boys in embarrassing fashion 4-1. You simply couldn’t have scripted a more shameful exit to the World Cup for the USMNT, which was punctuated by the Belgian players doing the “Trump dance” in their locker room after the win, and the team’s official Instagram account posting this devastating caption:
So, Heinz, while you were just trying to have a laugh with your cute little red card packets, you’ve actually rubbed salt into a fresh national wound from which we will never fully recover.
