How Heinz Hacked the Super Bowl Without Spending a Dime
In early 2017, as Super Bowl LI loomed, the airwaves braced for spectacle. Brands had already dropped millions on teasers, celebrity cameos and CGI-heavy previews. There would be puppies. There would be punchlines. Heinz had run Super Bowl ads before—memorable ones, even. But in 2017, while audiences were treated to the usual parade of beer spots, soft drink showdowns and big-budget car ads, something quietly shifted. Heinz was nowhere to be seen.
There was no moment of brand fanfare. No quirky jingle or visual punchline. What might have passed unnoticed in any other context gradually took on weight: the absence itself became part of the story.
Heinz didn’t just skip the Super Bowl. They used that decision as their message. There was no ad. No teaser. Instead, the company sent an internal memo: Employees could take Monday off, the day after the Super Bowl. They named it “Smunday,” and then invited the rest of the country to join them.
A Campaign That Sidestepped Convention
Smunday may have looked, at first, like a clever PR maneuver. And in many ways, it was. But the real brilliance was in the economics—and the timing. In 2017, a 30-second Super Bowl ad cost around $5 million just for the airtime, not including production, talent or the sprawling web of digital campaigns and follow-ups that inevitably come with it.
Heinz opted out of all of it. They gave the NFL nothing—and got everything: press coverage, public engagement and widespread conversation. By offering a single, human gesture (a day off) and anchoring it to a widely shared, post-Super Bowl experience, they positioned themselves within the conversation without ever stepping into the arena.
It was, in effect, a commercial that ran on borrowed momentum. They leveraged the country’s biggest advertising stage without paying to appear on it. And because it was novel—because no one else was doing it—it landed. But it was a move that could really only work once. The second or third brand to try something similar would be seen as derivative. Heinz got there first, and they made it count.
The campaign’s petition gathered signatures. Media outlets took notice. Conversations circulated, not about a commercial, but about the absence of one—and what it represented.
Inside the Strategy Room
The decision to sit out the Super Bowl was not improvised. Internally, Heinz’s communications team had been monitoring sentiment and timing well in advance. They had the numbers: The Monday after the Super Bowl really did see a significant drop in productivity. They knew employee morale could benefit from a symbolic gesture. And they anticipated that reporters, inundated with celebrity cameos and special effects, might welcome something a little different.
They carefully mapped out the coverage cycle, drafted messages that walked the line between lighthearted and sincere, and positioned the story in a way that was both timely and unexpected. The campaign may have seemed simple on the surface, but its execution was anything but. It was coordinated, precise, and—at its core—a risk.
No one presumed this was effortless. If anything, it stood out because it required a different kind of planning: one that bet on restraint, timing and emotional intelligence over production budgets and star power. It worked because it was brave. And it worked because it was smart.
What Comms Teams Can Learn From a Ketchup Day Off
Smunday isn’t really a story about silence—it’s a story about control. Heinz didn’t disappear from public view. They chose to engage differently, reshaping the conversation around the Super Bowl without playing by its rules. And they did it by anchoring their message in something real, relatable and strategically timed.
For media and comms teams, this is a case study in reframing. The takeaway isn’t “do less,” it’s “do differently.” Heinz didn’t pull back, they redirected. They stepped outside the expected channel, but not the conversation.
This kind of execution requires total clarity: visibility into what’s being said, what people are tired of hearing and what tone will resonate. It requires careful orchestration, cross-team coordination and the ability to adapt in real time as a narrative evolves.
It’s the kind of work that lives beyond the campaign—because the decisions made along the way need to be remembered, revisited and learned from. That’s what sets great comms teams apart: not just their presence in the moment, but their command of everything surrounding it.
The Quiet Work That Pays Off
The Smunday campaign didn’t rely on surprise alone. Its success came from knowing the moment, preparing for it and executing with restraint. Heinz declined the most visible stage in advertising and still managed to spark national conversation.
Their message wasn’t delivered through spectacle but through subtraction. It wasn’t flashy. It was calculated, purposeful and rooted in a clear understanding of timing and tone.
And for teams navigating a media environment that prizes velocity over thoughtfulness, that kind of decision-making remains one of the most valuable skills to develop.
You don’t need a $5 million ad slot to make a statement. Sometimes, the smartest move is knowing when to stay silent—and how to make that silence strategic. Broadsight helps media teams plan the quiet moments with just as much precision as the loud ones. Track sentiment, align messaging and document every decision—so even when you don’t show up, your strategy does. See how it works at broadsight.ca.
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