Todd Grauel – The Kraft Heinz Company

The partnership between HEINZ and Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine, playing off the brand’s ketchup and mustard products and the titular characters’ red and yellow costumes, seems obvious to anyone who knows modern marketing. But the work to make that campaign possible required heavy lifting by power players in both companies, including Todd Grauel, Kraft Heinz’s Associate General Counsel for U.S. business and brands.

Todd Grauel | The Kraft Heinz Company | Associate General Counsel – US Business and Brands

“It wasn’t just product placement. It was a creative fusion of Marvel’s cinematic universe with Kraft Heinz’s mission to embed our brands in modern culture.” Grauel tells Vanguard from Kraft Heinz’s global headquarters in Chicago.

The Kraft Heinz Company is a leading global food and beverage company with 200+ iconic brands, including Kraft, HEINZ, Oscar Meyer, and Philadelphia.

“What’s different here is that we’re inserting our brands into key pop culture opportunities designed to move people and, ultimately, the business. As the legal partner to the US businesses, I see my position as integrating into the marketing team to achieve goals in ways that push the creative envelope but don’t put the brands in legal or reputational jeopardy,” Grauel says.

Todd from Legal  

Grauel’s responsibilities are as diverse as they are challenging. His responsibilities supporting four of Kraft Heinz’s North American business units put him at the center of the business. He leverages his two decades as a corporate generalist and advertising law specialist to identify potential obstacles and works with his intellectual property, regulatory, procurement, employment, litigation, privacy, and government affairs colleagues—to anticipate problems and help the business carefully balance agility and risk.

In addition to Deadpool & Wolverine, Grauel has brought his approach to several of Kraft Heinz’s other popular activations – including Claussen’s reactive “Just the Brine” work last month, which played on the viral clip of Dua Lipa drinking a pickle juice cocktail and 2022’s “Don’t Worry Dijon” activation. After Grey Poupon was unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight as the star of a controversial (and, as some claimed, divorce-inducing) salad dressing recipe and celebrity love triangle, the beloved mustard brand playfully responded by releasing a limited-edition condiment.

Perhaps his favorite, though? Last year’s highly publicized HEINZ “Ketchup & Seemingly Ranch” reactive moment, a project that immediately brought Grauel into the fold.

In September 2023, Taylor Swift’s romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce took over the internet. When the popstar debuted her relationship with the footballer, a fan posted Swift eating a piece of chicken with ketchup and “seemingly ranch” went viral. HEINZ saw it as the perfect moment to tap into culture and give the brand’s Kranch product —a ketchup and ranch mashup— its long overdue time to shine with a Gen-Z audience. The team’s plan? Re-release Kranch in under 24 hours with a new name and label: HEINZ Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch.

Grauel works closely with marketing leaders to ensure that campaigns are not only innovative but also legally sound, and in this case, he knew it was critical to respect the rights of all parties involved and protect the brand.

“It was all-consuming,” he recalls, describing a whirlwind of meetings with the marketing and PR teams, the creative agency pitching the work, Kraft Heinz leadership and more. “This was a high-risk situation, and the risks needed to be smart ones. I review every line of copy and proposed imagery to ensure we can land on the X where the brand is protected but without losing the creative brilliance of the idea,” he explains.

His approach is not about saying “no” but finding ways to say “yes.”

“Sometimes it’s a ‘no’ but I like to exhaust the ‘yes, if,’ whenever possible” he says, emphasizing his role as a problem solver. “I might be in the weeds more than most lawyers but it’s because I’m energized by the love of these brands and the creative work we’re doing. I always want the teams to ‘press go’ on a campaign while feeling confident that we’ve mitigated key risks.

Grauel leads with his creativity, giving the marketing teams the space to present ideas and ideate with him while he navigates around risks as part of the creative solve. Unsurprisingly, he has built a reputation for enabling rather than restricting creativity. He’s even infamously known within the walls of Kraft Heinz as “Todd from Legal” and has playfully assumed a pseudo-villain role in social campaigns with variations of “Todd from Legal told us we can’t say that.”

Partnerships and relationships 

Since joining Kraft Heinz in January 2020, Grauel has contributed to a cultural transformation within the company. The shift towards a more creative and consumer-focused mindset has been palpable, with leadership setting ambitious goals to become one of the best marketers in the world. They are well on their way and Grauel has been a key member of this transformation. For example, at the 2024 Cannes International Festival of Creativity, Kraft Heinz won the highest number of awards in company history, including winning its first Grand Prix for the creative effectiveness of the ‘It Has to be HEINZ’ advertising work over the last five years.

“Winning is contagious for culture,” he says. “When you see the culture shift and the team coming together to achieve results, it motivates you to push even harder.”

Kraft Heinz’s transformation isn’t limited to advertising. Innovations like HEINZ REMIX, a customizable condiment dispenser, reflects the company’s commitment to personalization and consumer obsession.

“We’re always going to explore opportunities to own the moment through creativity and innovation,” Grauel notes, highlighting the importance of aligning with popular culture, sports and entertainment trends. The company’s ability to “show up and show up big” in these spaces directly results from strategic planning and a willingness to embrace bold ideas.

Grauel’s role is fundamental to ensuring these ambitious initiatives are legally sound.  This requires constant vigilance and a proactive approach to risk management as a business, all while maintaining a collaborative spirit.

“There’s no challenge in saying no,” he explains. “The real, hard, and rewarding work begins after ‘yes, if.’ It requires a lot of trust between the marketing teams and legal.”

Despite the demanding nature of his role, Grauel approaches his work with gratitude.

For Grauel, a native of South Bend, Indiana, working for Kraft Heinz is a dream. “This is a bucket list job for me,” he says. His love for his work is evident in the relationships he’s built, the campaigns he’s helped bring to life, and the culture he’s helped shape.

Whether it’s negotiating supply agreements with some of the country’s largest restaurant chains, brainstorming with the marketing team, or collaborating with the rest of the legal team, Grauel embodies Kraft Heinz’s commitment to innovation, excellence, and consumer obsession.

Squeezing out quite a career 

Grauel’s path to law was anything but conventional. He initially pursued a pre-med track and spent countless hours shadowing doctors. But it was a doctor who steered him toward the law insisting that a law degree could offer broader opportunities within healthcare. That would lead him to Wabash College, a small all-male liberal arts college in central Indiana. As a pre-law-focused student, he found the critical thinking, creative thought, and tenacity of Wabash College a natural fit. Grauel knew he was on the right path.

Grauel’s time in law school at a Minnesota institution—the Hamline School of Law (now Mitchell Hamline)—was again unconventional, chosen as much for its hockey team as its dual JD/MBA program. It was an externship with a telecom company that deepened his understanding of the business world.

Once in-house mentorship was a cornerstone of his early career; he benefited from relationships with seasoned C-level legal and business professionals, as well as various outside counsel like Jennifer Debrow, currently with Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, who remains a trusted advisor.