🌭 Did Heinz wait too long to say MUSTAAARD?

Short term bets vs. Long term bets, Timing can be unforgiving

Back in November 2024, Kendrick Lamar released the song "tv off," which featured him yelling the lyric "MUSTAAAAAAAAARRRD," in reference to producer DJ Mustard.

It went viral and became a meme that many brands, including Heinz, started referencing in social media posts.

Heinz teased this collaboration several months ago but now the new mustard is officially releasing this month across the US.

It's a layered creative idea that includes DJ Mustard as the face of the campaign as Heinz's new "Chief Mustard Officer."

However, in internet time, seven months is an eternity. Some in internet culture argue the moment’s passed, that the meme is stale. It's a song lyric that no one really thinks about now and many people won't even get the reference at this point.

Sometimes brands place long term bets and sometimes they place short term bets. This mustard is a short term bet on a specific song lyric that might soon be forgotten, or is arguably now irrelevant.

A long term bet would be an actual relationship with Kendrick Lamar and DJ Mustard built around an actual creative concept rather than just referencing a meme, IF that's even authentic.

There's no wrong answer here in the sense that Heinz is definitely in the cultural conversation and they will probably drive decent marketing results.

The thing is, culture is fickle and there are many ways to skin a cat.

To me, Heinz is scratching at something cute but they could be building something bigger and more authentic. There's a missed opportunity here.

What do you think?

At PWR House, we help brands embed themselves within culture and getting the details of that execution right is incredibly important.