--- title: Kraft Heinz Gives Employees Day Off Instead of Super Bowl Ad description: In lieu of a pricey Super Bowl ad spot, Kraft Heinz is opting to use its funds elsewhere by giving some of their employees the day off. canonical: https://time.com/4650277/kraft-heinz-superbowl-monday/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-26T17:46:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:29.614Z og:title: Kraft Heinz Skips Super Bowl Ad to Give Employees a Day Off og:description: They're petitioning for the day after the Super Bowl to be a national holiday og:url: https://time.com/4650277/kraft-heinz-superbowl-monday/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2f98ed77bc91d8a/6988b7648e0601707a468f79/heinz-monday-superbowl.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Food Giants Kraft And Heinz To Merge og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kraft Heinz Skips Super Bowl Ad to Give Employees a Day Off twitter:description: They're petitioning for the day after the Super Bowl to be a national holiday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2f98ed77bc91d8a/6988b7648e0601707a468f79/heinz-monday-superbowl.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kraft Heinz Is Giving Employees the Day After the Super Bowl Off In Lieu of a Commercial  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 26, 2017 5:46 PM UTC  (Photo Illustration by Scott Olson/Getty Images) (Photo Illustration by Scott Olson/Getty Images)Scott Olson—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 26, 2017 5:46 PM UTC A [30-second Super Bowl ad spot can easily set a company back millions of dollars](http://fortune.com/2015/08/06/super-bowl-ad-cost/), which is why it should come as no surprise that some businesses are turning to alternative methods to engage with audiences. [Ketchup maverick Kraft Heinz](http://time.com/3770785/heinz-kraft-merger/) has announced that in lieu of a multimillion dollar ad for the Super Bowl, they’ll instead be giving their salaried employees the day off following the big game. In fact, the company is taking this Super Bowl stunt so seriously that they created a [change.org petition](https://www.change.org/p/make-the-monday-after-the-big-game-a-national-holiday) to “Make the Monday after the ‘Big Game’ a National Holiday,” which has garnered 11,087 supporters so far. There’s also a personalized hashtag — #smunday, if you’re so inclined to use it. The petition notes that: “Statistics show over 16 million people call in sick or just don’t show up to work. And for those that do, productivity plummets so far that the country loses on average around $1 billion (true story).” However, Kraft Heinz’s bold move hasn’t come without its share of detractors. According to [_Bloomberg_](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-25/kraft-heinz-is-giving-workers-a-day-off-in-super-bowl-stunt), all of Heinz’s employees will not receive the vacation day of Thursday. 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