Whether it’s fried chicken or fish and chips, the best place to enjoy a plate of greasy comfort food is rarely at the dining table. It’s on the sofa – slouching, reclining, possibly completely horizontal. Comfort for humans. Torture for the couch.

Thanks to Heinz’s new sauces, these indulgent moments are set to get even more tempting – but there’s a flipside, a higher chance of a rogue drop of grease making its unwelcome mark on the couch.  

So to launch its new Spicy Chicken Sauce and Fish & Chips Sauce in Italy, Heinz and DUDE Milan aren’t fighting this reality, but embracing it. The solution is the SauceCover – a sofa cover made from grease-resistant material, and designed specifically for people who believe comfort eating should never be compromised by concerns about upholstery.

Rather than encouraging customers to be more careful, the campaign presents an object that allows people to throw caution to the wind (or sauce onto the sofa).

The practical Heinz SauceCover was developed with Milan designers, Burro Studio. The cover draws inspiration from Heinz’s famous visual identity and the classic graphics of fry-wrap paper, combining the two through a colourful, pop-influenced design language, drawing on the colours, textures and visual cues of the new sauces.

Antonio Mitra, creative director at DUDE Milan, commented, “When a sauce is truly irresistible, the question isn’t if it will end up on the couch, but when. The Heinz SauceCover was born from this simple truth – if Heinz makes fried food even more tempting, then someone has to protect the couch. The result is an unexpected object that brings together utility, design and irony, celebrating the pleasure of enjoying your love for fried food without compromise.” 

The SauceCover has launched across Heinz Italia’s social channels, led by a 30-second film that borrows the visual language of premium design advertising.

Supporting the film is a series of stills depicting people enjoying fried food in increasingly carefree positions while the SauceCover absorbs the consequences in the background. Although the SauceCover will not be available for purchase by the general public, a limited number of covers will be distributed to media titles and influencers in Italy to put to the test with generous quantities of fried food and Heinz Spicy Chicken and Fish and Chips sauces.

Daniela D’Aguanno, Kraft Heinz Italia marketing director, commented, “The Heinz SauceCover, created in collaboration with BurroStudio, perfectly captures the way Heinz develops its ideas. We start from a real consumer habit and turn an everyday insight into something unexpected, useful and smile-inducing. With the new Spicy Chicken Sauce and Fish & Chips Sauce, we wanted to pair two fried food icons with one of their most natural settings – the sofa at home, where the pleasure of taste often wins over formality. That is how this tangible, ironic and functional object came to life. It protects the sofa from splashes and drops of sauce, but above all translates the Heinz world into a real-life experience. It is a perfect example of our approach to communication, bringing together social, digital and experiential to create unconventional ideas that can enter the conversation and make even the simplest comfort food moment memorable.”

Credits
Client: HEINZ ITALIA
Marketing Director: Daniela D’Aguanno
Brand Manager Junior: Susanna Romanò 
Social Media and Content Specialist: Alice Rigamonti
Marketing Specialist: Ginevra Cortesi 

Creative Agency:  DUDE MILANO
CCO & Partners: Lorenzo Picchiotti, Livio Basoli
Creative Directors: Stefano Summo, Antonio Mitra
Senior Art Director: Antonio Gambino
Senior Copywriter: Alessandro Magnani
Junior Art Director: Gaia Ballarini
Junior Copywriter: Viola Triossi
Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer: Lorenzo Foffani
Head of Content: Ludovica D’Aquino
Strategy Supervisor: Michelangelo Ferracane
Business Director: Elena Panza
Account Director: Ilario Ruffini
Senior Account Manager: Silvia Asta
Junior Account: Zoe Agnese
Integrated Production Director: Jacopo Turrini
Head of Video Production: Simone Raddi
Senior Producer: Maria Chiara Muglia
Producer: Luca Murru
Event Manager: Rebecca Pesce
Event Manager Assistant: Giulia Righi
Post Production Director: Seba Morando
Post Producer: Silvia Brigoli
Editor & Motion Designer: Alessandro Menotti

Director: Gabriele Crotti
DOP: Iacopo Ferrari
Set Designer: Carlo Maria Filippelli
Food Stylist: Flavia Mollica
Styling: Juice Costumi 
Hair & Make Up: Amy Kourouma
Colour Grading: Andrea Sabatelli
Sound Design & Mix: Operà Music

SauceCover: Burro Studio