Football season is giving Hellmann's a chance to make a bigger call.
The brand is spotlighting its Chipotle and Spicy mayo varieties for its new "Call for Hellmann's" campaign from VML New York.
Two 15-second spots treat game day food choices like football play calls.
"Make the Call" sends Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise onto a burger.
"Chicky Tenders" calls in Chipotle and Spicy mayo for chicken tenders.
The spots use original music inspired by classic football films, with the food assembled through rapid-fire play-by-play commands.
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Hellmann's will run the campaign across national TV, streaming and social throughout football season.
The advertising strategy gives Hellmann's one of its biggest annual media windows to promote the part of its portfolio gaining the most momentum.
In 2024, Unilever revealed flavored mayo represents more than 7% of U.S. mayo sales, while its own flavored range has posted strong growth.
Hellmann's also spent six consecutiveyears in football marketing.
But "Call for Hellmann's" gives this year's investment a sharper product agenda.
Hellmann's Calls Flavored Mayo Into the Play
The two spots use football language to make ordinary food choices feel like play calls.
"Make the Call" opens with a man grilling a burger and a "foodie QB" quickly assigns each ingredient a football-style command.
Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise gets the call, followed by pickles, lettuce and tomato.
"Chicky Tenders" gives the flavored portfolio more room.
The film opens with the call "Chicky, chicky tender!" with the actors at a cookout spot outside a stadium.
Calls for Hellmann's Chipotle and Spicy varieties come next as they are squeezed into dipping bowls for the poultry snack.
Each film close with the tagline: "Make the call. Call for Hellmann's."
The condiments brand is giving national TV exposure to newer SKUs while keeping the core product in the same creative system.
The approach also gives the brand a way to connect flavored mayo with familiar football foods.
Chipotle and Spicy Mayo are presented as choices for a specific dish, which makes the products easier to understand at the point of consumption.
Chipotle has already shown traction within the range.
Unilever's Brent Lukowski said in 2025 that Chipotle Mayo was the top performer among Hellmann's flavored mayo launches.
The campaign therefore uses football as a selling environment for a portfolio that is already gaining traction.
Flavored Mayo Becomes a Growth Bet
Hellmann's is putting media behind a category with room to grow.
Circana data provided by Unilever put the U.S. flavored mayonnaise market at $210 million in 2024.
Food Dive also reported that Hellmann's flavored mayo sales nearly doubled in 2023.
Unilever's research also found that more than 35% of nonusers were willing to buy and try flavored mayo.
The data suggests the range continues to support Hellmann's performance.
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The numbers point to a product strategy that extends usage occasions and gives Hellmann's more reasons to appear on the game day table.
- Flavored products can recruit new users. Brands should connect new variants to familiar foods to reduce the friction of trial.
- Product variety can increase household usage. Brands should use extensions to grow the core franchise to increase basket size.
- Social media can accelerate a product trend. Marketers should put emerging products into high-reach cultural settings to increase awareness.
Football gives Hellmann's a high-frequency food occasion where flavored mayo can be demonstrated as part of the meal, not treated as a novelty.
Our Take: Can Football Sell the Whole Mayo Portfolio?
Hellmann's has a stronger opportunity here than simply promoting another seasonal flavor.
The useful detail is the way "Chicky Tenders" assigns a specific product to a specific food.
Chipotle and Spicy are shown as sauces with a job to do.
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This matters because flavored mayo still has to answer a basic consumer question.
What do I put it on?
Hellmann's can use football foods to answer that question nationally.
But if consumers remember the joke but forget which mayo was called, the media investment has done less commercial work.
We think the bigger opportunity is repeatable product placement across the season.
Hellmann's can keep giving each flavor a food, occasion or game day use case until the range becomes easier to shop from memory.
The brand enters a football marketing space where brands are increasingly treating Sunday viewing as a food-driven ritual.
Classico recently unveiled its NFL Sunday Football Sauce through a campaign designed around the same weekly occasion.
The difference is that Hellmann's has a portfolio story to tell, giving its football platform a direct role in product discovery.
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