Heinz’s New NASCAR Advertisement Is So Quick, You’ll Have To Pause To See It
By Alexa Heah, 07 Mar 2023
If there’s one thing countless viewers tune in to NASCAR for, it’s the incredible speeds at which the drivers manage to wrangle their cars at. Hence, Heinz’s latest advertisement during the Pennzoil 400 race decided to tap on fans’ favorite ingredient: speed.
When the intriguing spot first appears, it’s all a blur. Just 0.57 seconds long, it looks like a whirl of activity, offering silhouettes of the famed ketchup bottle but not much else. However, when paused and played back slowly, the commercial reveals a hidden $5 DoorDash voucher.
Interestingly, according to The Drum, this isn’t the fastest advertisement to grace television. While Reddit’s five-second spot for this year’s Super Bowl seems long in comparison, the record belongs to Seattle-based restaurant Ivar’s with a half-second commercial back in 2009.
Jacqueline Chao, Senior Brand Manager at Heinz, told LBB Online the super-quick spot aims to highlight the beauty of slowing things down, especially the company’s famously slow-pouring ketchup.
Mike Dubrick, Partner at Rethink, concurred, saying that after being “famously slow” for over a century, Heinz was the perfect company to pull off such a commercial to capture viewers’ attention in a new way.
Head here to watch the advertisement at various speeds and spot the code.
[via The Drum and LBB Online, cover image via Heinz]