In the middle of October, which is ironically the U.K.’s Black History Month, Heinz released a series of public ad posters promoting family sized pasta sauce. The ads depict a wedding reception where the Black bride sits in the middle of the table completely overjoyed while eating pasta. To her right sit her white groom’s mother and father. On the left, the groom and what looks like the bride’s Black mother appear.
To the average non-Black passerbyer, the ad is a harmless, fun take on the modern wedding of a interracial couple simply eating pasta, but Black people are doing a double take for reasons way to familiar and hurtful.
Where is the bride’s father? The groom has both of his parents pictured, but what’s up with only the bride’s Black mom being shown? We all know she has a dad. We all have dads, so why did Heinz go out of their way not to include the bride’s dad on her “special day?”
One X user, @FeministOnMarx, said “What a remarkably absurd choice at representation. One finds racism even in cans, it seems.”
Despite studies claiming Black men are the most attentive dads compared to other races, the deadbeat dad stereotype persists. Since the ads were released, Black folks on social media continue to call Heinz out for perpetuating racist stereotypes against the Black community.
One X, author of “Think Like A White Man (a satire)” Nels Abbey quoted rapper Nas writing “‘For my brothers with daughters’ Because, believe it or not, Black girls have Dads too.” Clearly outraged by Heinz tone deafness.
If you can believe it, this ad isn’t even the only one people are calling racist. Another poster— this time promoting ketchup— hit the streets, and once again, Black people are feeling as like they are catching strays.
In their new “smiles” campaign, the ketchup company portrays a series of people eating a burger with tons of Heinz ketchup around their mouths. Once again, the average viewer probably wouldn’t think twice about the creepy, joker-inspired posters, but for the Black community, historical context is everything.
Regardless of the intentions, Black people often feel these ads walk a dangerously close line to historic minstrel shows where Blackface and racist caricatures still haunt Black folks to this day.
But could it be Heinz Company made an innocent mistake? Or were these ads perfectly placed to gain attention? A Guardian article, written by Abbey, mentioned “We know that outrage sells. As does subtle racism. And in the main, no publicity – especially for a billion-dollar entity like Heinz – is bad publicity.”
Who knows if the ad was ran by Black people before it flooded the streets of Great Britain. After receiving backlash for the series of images, Heinz apologized, telling the Independent: “We always appreciate members of the public’s perspective on our campaigns. We understand how this ad could have unintentionally perpetuated negative stereotypes.
“We extend our deepest apologies and will continue to listen, learn and improve to avoid this happening again in the future,” the statement continued. Additionally, Heinz has moved to take down the ads, but does that erase the damaging images from the memory of the Black community?
