Heinz and Paramount Cook Up a Pasta Sauce You Can't Refuse

With a growing number of people replicating recipes from TV and film, Heinz and Paramount have joined forces to launch one of the greatest recipes in cinema history.

Available on-line and in-store from today, this new limited-edition Heinz and The Godfather Pasta Sauce features the ingredients detailed in the film by Peter “leave the gun, take the cannoli” Clemenza as he teaches Michael Corleone how to cook the perfect pasta sauce.

To support the launch, VML Spain, together with the team at Heinz have cooked up a comprehensive marketing campaign comprising social (Meta, TikTok and Reddit), print and OOH, including locations like The Shard and London’s Leicester Square – with contextual placement targeting movie theatres, movie sites, movie titles and The Godfather’s fan groups on social media. 

On the launch, Caio Fontenele, Heinz new ventures director, said, "The Godfather, by “Paramount Pictures’ remains one of the greatest films in cinema history. And after we watched Clemenza teaching Michael how to make his perfect pasta sauce, alongside seeing a rising trend on social media of people replicating recipes from their favourite films and TV series at home, we knew it had to be Heinz that finally brought this iconic recipe to the nation. This unexpected yet iconic collaboration is set to unleash excitement and disruption in the pasta sauces category, whether you’re a long-time fan of The Godfather or just looking for a new great tasting pasta dish.”

Pipo Virgós, executive creative director at VML Spain adds, “Discovering that one of the most beloved films of all time is, potentially, a pasta sauce ad, blew our minds. The greatest movie required the finest tomatoes, so it had to be Heinz. Timing it with the 50th anniversary of the saga and next week’s Oscars has helped make the offer even harder to refuse.”

Heinz and The Godfather Pasta Sauce is the sequel to Heinz x Absolut Vodka Pasta Sauce, which sold out in hours via the brand’s DTC website and brought in new and younger shoppers to the category, with over 60% of sales being incremental do the current category buyers.

Caio concludes, “We’re focused on driving future growth of the Heinz brand by expanding into adjacencies where we know we have the right to win. Pasta sauce is a great example of this, and we’re leveraging smart partnerships like Absolut and Paramount to bring disruption and excitement to the category and drive awareness of the full range as a halo effect”.