A friend of mine recently asked, “why do we need a commercial for ketchup when everybody knows Heinz exists?”  Interesting question. I should note that this friend despises ketchup, while I happen to LOVE it. I love it so much that I ate a ketchup and potato chip sandwich almost every day in high school to avoid eating the warm tuna sandwiches my father made each morning.

Back to the original question. Is it really necessary for Heinz to air a commercial about ketchup? Necessary, no: smart, yes. And yet, despite their stellar performance at the 2016 Super Bowl with “wiener stampede,” Heinz  decided to sit this one out.

So what if it turned out to be one of the greatest Super Bowls ever? Heinz came up with a great way of capturing people’s attention even without a commercial at this year’s game. Heinz launched a grassroots campaign to declare Super Bowl Monday a national holiday for America’s workforce, and they’re calling it “Smunday” (the day after Sunday). The petition has more than 69,000 signatures so far.

I’d say they knocked it out of the park with this one. No commercial, just a clever way of getting people to talk about their product. Kudos, Heinz.