Kraft Heinz, Kendrick Lamar and Axe embody cultural capital at Cannes

Illustration by Robyn Phelps / Getty / Shutterstock / The Current
June 25, 2025
MUSTAAAAAARD.
It’s a catchphrase and major cultural moment — one that Kraft Heinz seized that displays a perfect example of how a brand can authentically embrace culture and drive its business forward.
And that’s why Kraft Heinz’s mustard moment became a case study at this year’s Cannes Lions. For marketers gathered in the South of France, one theme kept surfacing: culture. With it moving so fast, the brands that can tap into it are more likely to win. From Heinz to Axe, companies were all too ready to showcase their cultural fluency and how they found innovative ways to reach their audiences across multiple channels.
After Kendrick Lamar released GNX late last year, with a viral “mustard” shout on his hit song “tv off” featuring DJ Mustard, Kraft Heinz quickly mobilized a multi-pronged strategy: a 30-second ad placed during the Grammys between Record of the Year and Song of the Year (both of which Lamar won for his Drake diss track “Not Like Us”), a social rollout and a limited-edition collaboration with DJ Mustard, announced days before the Super Bowl.
It paid off. Heinz was the second most talked about brand on Super Bowl Sunday, even without airing a commercial during the game. The coverage around the stunt earned 1.1 billion impressions overall and was shortlisted for six awards at Cannes, including the Real-Time Response award.
“We didn’t buy the biggest moment, we bet on the right one,” said Todd Kaplan, Heinz’s CMO of North America, while on stage during his Cannes Lions session.
Capitalizing on culture
Kaplan emphasized that iconic campaigns often happen at the speed of culture by being scrappy. Getting bogged down with heavily briefed-in ideas and coordination with agencies will only slow things down.
He oversaw the massive mustard moment only a few months after joining Heinz as CMO. The campaign was developed by Heinz’s in-house agency The Kitchen with agency Cashmere. Carat executed the media planning.
The limited-edition Heinz Mustaaaaaard will be available at Buffalo Wild Wings exclusively June 25 before becoming available at Target, 7-Eleven, Walmart and Amazon.
His advice to other marketers the next time a moment strikes?
“Invite culture into the conversation,” Kaplan shared. “Bring it into your briefs. Bring it into the walls of your organization. That’s where the real magic happens in marketing.”
It’s not the only time Heinz has struck gold this year. During March Madness, Brigham Young University’s Richie Saunders revealed that his great-grandfather created the tater tot brand Ore-Ida. Within days, the company signed Saunders to an NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) deal and put out a quick-turn ad.
The campaign captured 3 billion earned impressions overall. Without having an official March Madness sponsorship, Ore-Ida saw more engagement than all of the official sponsors combined — while spending less than half a percent of that combined media spending on the Saunders campaign.
Axe redefines masculinity to fit the current age
Heinz wasn’t the only brand at Cannes riding cultural momentum.
Axe, the men’s grooming brand from Unilever, shared its own comeback story. After years of pulling back in the name of political correctness, Axe lost the edgy humor that once made it a category leader. The body spray’s global brand director Caroline Gregory admitted “Over time we lost step with culture,” during her panel at Cannes.
“When we stopped laughing at ourselves, the business took a hit,” she added.
To turn things around, Axe got back to basics. It simplified its messaging and recrafted its identity as the irreverent, funny body spray for the 21st century — one that leans into everyday situations men experience over hypermasculinity.
Its new campaign, ‘The Power of Fragrance,’ launched globally this year across TV, streaming, digital-out-of-home, audio, social, cinema and digital.
That brand reinvention is paying dividends, with Unilever reporting Axe grew by high single-digits in 2024.
At Cannes, the takeaway was clear. Brands can’t just buy attention, they must authentically engage with their customers. The key is not forcing it. When the moment’s right, the foundation of a brand’s identity will shine through. Otherwise, viewers will make like Kendrick … and turn the TV off.