Advert Analysis - Heinz

 



This advertisement is for the Heinz company who does mostly condiments including tomato ketchup which they're most known for. This advert based on a real direct message from Ed Sheeran was aired in 2019. The advertisement is specifically advertizing their ketchup, a simple and very well demanded condiment. 



Media Language

Since the product being advertized is a bottle of ketchup, doing a typical advert with just the product being shown and people eating it would be extremely boring and wounldn't get people's attention. The advert here uses a narration format along with some self-roasting on Heinz's part. The casual narration of Ed Sheeran (with the advert based on a very casual DM from Ed) and the comedic self awareness of Heinz makes the advert more enjoyable and more recognizable to the audience, which are around the younger generation around ages 12-50. 


Representation

The advertisement plays heavily on the idea that fancy restaurants are ridiculously very posh and fancy. Ed pokes fun at 5 star restaurants having too many forks, a chandaler, classical music and very well dressed staff with very fancy sounding foods that he can't remember the names of. The plack on the hostest's podium even says "Super Posh Restaurant". Their interaction is also a jab at the fancy restaurant industry as Ed is so much more casual than the entire restaurant, from the way he talks to his entire being akin to the more "lower class". This type of separation is to make fun of the higher class European style folks who think they're better than the common people cause they dine in aurageously fancy restaurant with tiny servings of food. 


Audience

The audience of this advert are mostly people who know of Ed Sheeran. Being a big name in the music industry the advert is bound to get his fan's attention to the ad. The ad mostly uses entertainment to attract people to the ad and hopefully buy a bottle of Heinz. When Ed pulls out the bottle of ketchup the entire restaurant of upper class people look on in horror, that he's about to ruin this fancy meal with his bottle of ketchup. Ketchup is rarely associated with fancy restaurants so to have Ed use it so casually while in this restaurant is very entertaining.  Because if there's anything the "common people" like to do is make fun of the upper class. 

Industry

The advert plays on the satire of ketchup's bad reputation of ruining foods, especially fancy posh foods, with it's overwhelmingly sweet and sour taste. Heinz is very self aware of that reputation and plays it up for comedy effect. And it works astoundingly well. The internet's reputation of being very random and not so serious lets this advert be very successful. Having the company poke fun of themselves for their one bad rep leads people to think of the product more fondly. 



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