When Secretary of Education Linda McMahon accidentally referred to AI as “A.1.” at the ASU+GSV Summit last week, Kraft Heinz couldn’t resist having fun with the mix-up.
Instead of letting the moment pass, the food giant and owner of A.1. steak sauce tapped its creative partner, Mischief @ No Fixed Address, to the opportunity with a clever and playful social media post—all within 24 hours of the incident.
The image featured an A.1. bottle labeled “For education purposes only,” with a bold banner declaring, “Agree. Best to start them early.” The caption read, “You heard her. Every school should have access to A.1.”
The result? Thousands of comments, massive social media engagement, and a playful nod to the brand’s bold, saucy tone.
Even John Oliver got in on the fun, calling the incident on his show Last Week Tonight “a perfect distillation of our current times ” and applauding the brand for dunking on the U.S. Secretary of Education’s blunder.
“We had just this moment of thinking, ‘A.1. is an iconic brand,’” Jess Vultaggio, vice president of creative culture and effectiveness at Kraft Heinz, told ADWEEK. “So we were like, ‘We have to do something with this. Should we do something with this? We have to do something with this.’”