{"id":13999,"date":"2026-07-10T07:55:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/?p=13999"},"modified":"2026-07-10T07:55:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:55:51","slug":"heinzs-penalty-packets-accidentally-highlight-the-usmnts-embarrassing-world-cup-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/?p=13999","title":{"rendered":"Heinz\u2019s \u2018Penalty Packets\u2019 Accidentally Highlight the USMNT\u2019s Embarrassing World Cup Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul style=\"border-color:#000000;border-width:3px;border-top-left-radius:30px;border-top-right-radius:30px;border-bottom-left-radius:30px;border-bottom-right-radius:30px\" class=\"wp-block-list is-style-default has-border-color has-bg-shade-background-color has-background has-small-font-size\">\n<li>Heinz has released \u201cPenalty Packets\u201d to get in on the World Cup soccer mania as the tournaments reaches its climax <\/li>\n<li>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<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I don\u2019t necessarily look to Heinz for incisive social commentary. Like most people, I simply look to Heinz for condiments. That said, their marketing team isn\u2019t afraid to flex in funky ways, like in Heinz Brazil\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thedieline.com\/heinz-brazil-uses-crochet-to-endear-grandmothers-to-mayonnaise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cGrandma\u2019s Darling\u201d Mayonnaise campaign<\/a>, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and in the brand\u2019s recent cheeky packaging response to FIFA\u2019s \u201cbrand protection\u201d policy. And now, with their latest \u201cPenalty Packets\u201d campaign, they\u2019re diving headfirst into one of the biggest hot-button issues of the moment: red cards.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Finally, a booking you\u2019ll love. It\u2019s not too late to save your matchday meals.\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/td32OzUzSao?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Penalty Packets are Heinz\u2019s 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 \u201cfoul on flavor\u201d 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!<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While I\u2019m 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\u2019s World Cup. *This* is why we can\u2019t have nice things (not even red cards\u2026) In short, when one of our US Men\u2019s National Team players, Folarin Balogun, received a red card that would force him to miss the US\u2019s 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! <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/49286603\/us-president-donald-trump-confirms-asked-fifa-review-balogun-red-card\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ESPN reported<\/a> that Trump said he didn\u2019t actually know what a red card was or what its consequences were, but when he found out it could keep one of the US\u2019s best goal-scorers from their round-of-16 match against Belgium, \u201che felt compelled to intervene.\u201d Sounds like our president to me!<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u201cLeader of the Free World\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But as they say in sports, ball don\u2019t lie: Despite Trump\u2019s bullying to get Balogun\u2019s 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\u2019t have scripted a more shameful exit to the World Cup for the USMNT, which was punctuated by the Belgian players doing the \u201cTrump dance\u201d in their locker room after the win, and the team\u2019s official Instagram account posting this devastating caption:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"\/>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, Heinz, while you were just trying to have a laugh with your cute little red card packets, you\u2019ve actually rubbed salt into a fresh national wound from which we will never fully recover. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/thedieline.com\/heinzs-penalty-packets-accidentally-highlight-the-usmnts-embarrassing-world-cup-scandal\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heinz has released \u201cPenalty Packets\u201d 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\u2019t necessarily look to Heinz for incisive social [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-packaging-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}