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Ed Sheeran gets a giant bear tingly for his hot sauce

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 14 June 2023

Earlier this year Ed Sheeran launched his own hot sauce brand Tingly Ted’s. Now he’s ready to take it to the next level with an advertising campaign created with Warner Music’s brand partnerships division WMX and the actual maker of the sauces, The Kraft Heinz Company.

The campaign answers that age-old question: What would happen if Ed Sheeran was friends with a giant grumpy teddy bear who really liked hot sauce? It also gives us the tagline “makes anything a tingly thing”, which I think we’d all be quite happy for them to have back.

Three adverts have been made as part of the campaign, with the first out now. It sees Ed and Ted out for a meal together. Another customer asks Ted to use the hot sauce after him. But Ted then drains all the hot sauce. Though for some reason the man still takes the bottle. Meanwhile, Ed apologises for the turn of events.

Explaining the thinking behind all this, WMX’s Associate Creative Director Charlie Rout says: “Hot sauce has traditionally lent on the likes of heavy metal and crossbones for its brand identity, but we were working with Ed Sheeran and a grumpy six foot teddy called Ted”.

Sure. He goes on: “When developing Ted, we always saw Ed and Ted as two sides of the same coin, opposite ends of the same table. Whilst Ed is chilled out, welcoming and an all-round good guy, Ted by contrast is grumpy and hot-tempered – as if your belly had its very own persona”.

“From there”, he rambles on, “we wanted to develop a world for Ed, Ted, and the new product to play in. Something that could go anywhere over time, and what better place to start than a diner with his best friend?”

Those were definitely all words, and here are some more from Andre Fernandes, who is VP Taste Elevation, International Zone at The Kraft Heinz Company: “When we first introduced Tingly Ted’s earlier this year, we were excited for the world to meet the brand and try the ‘ketchup of hot sauces’. Now, we can’t wait for people to get to know Ted and experience life as he sees it: covered in the perfect amount of Tingly Ted’s”.

I don’t know if any of that made sense. To be honest, I’m still distracted by the job title VP Taste Elevation. That cannot be a real job title. How does one, er, elevate themselves to become Vice President of Taste Elevation? What does the job entail? What does anything mean anymore?

Launching his two hot sauces earlier this year – Tingly and Xtra Tingly – Sheeran claimed that his sauces were “genuinely something I use every day on all three meals”.

“I’ve had them on tour with me recently to try them with all sorts of meals”, he added. “There really isn’t anything they don’t go with – except bananas, don’t do that”.

Warner Music’s WMX division was launched in 2021, bringing together the major’s teams who are focused on things like brand partnerships, merchandise and direct-to-fan, content and media, and – of course – silly sauce selling.

Watch Ed and Ted in action here: