The story got funny when someone decided that mayonnaise needed to fix the world. Billionaire investor Terry Smith criticized Unilever in 2022 and ended up creating one of the best corporate memes: “a company that feels the need to define the purpose of Hellmann’s mayonnaise has clearly missed the point.” He classified Unilever’s marketing initiatives as “ludicrous” and indicated that they diverted attention from the basics of the business.
The following year, he returned to the topic, questioning whether Hellmann’s recent growth actually came from purpose or other factors: “there is no control in this experiment; we don’t know if it wouldn’t grow as fast (or even more) without this ‘purpose'”, wrote Smith in 2023. In a sarcastic tone, he suggested that Hellmann’s could perhaps be growing even faster without this “idealistic” positioning.
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“Because, of course, the problem with the world was mayonnaise’s lack of social engagement.” Investors have no patience with academic concepts and the criticism stuck because it coincided with questions about growth and focus. Purpose has become a tired word because many have tried to use it as a reputational shortcut.
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If you have a cultural territory that is born from the experience of your product, invest. If you don’t have it, don’t invent it. And yes, you can build relevance with causes when the cause improves use, reduces friction and increases perceived value. The worst trap is to turn purpose into corporate theater.
Purpose strategy
Months later, Unilever’s new CEO, bluntly, declared that he will no longer force each of the company’s brands to have a social or environmental purpose: “we must stop forcing purpose into brands. For some, it simply won’t be relevant. And that’s okay.”
While the academic debate continued, the company accelerated the Growth Action Plan, decided to separate the ice cream business and prioritized productivity and portfolio focus. Less dispersion, more margin and predictability. Throughout 2024 and 2025, the company reported growth within the guided range, volume recovery and improved margins, in addition to growing dividends.
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Hellmann’s has not erased the issue of food waste. It just treated it as a product territory, not as a universal flag. The 2024 Super Bowl brought the play “Mayo Cat” with Kate McKinnon. Humor, pop culture and a pragmatic reminder.
Data beyond purpose
In Timelens’ exclusive data, the game is less theoretical and more real. Hellmann’s continues to lead the category and concentrates almost half of the interest: 48.1% search share, against 35.4% for Heinz and 16.5% for Hemmer. The biggest peak? Olympics with Cazé TV. Final of women’s skate street, Rebeca Andrade’s gold, the audience rises and the brand rises with it, when conversation becomes habit and habit becomes memory.
On the brand’s website, “believe in the power of flavor, because tasty food is less wasted; inspire the use of what is already in the fridge so that nothing goes to waste”. Beautiful, consistent with the Make Taste, Not Waste platform, but in Portuguese it sounds like a translation with a touch of forced casualness. This is where the investor’s criticism gained echo. The point, however, is different: Brazilians do not need to memorize a manifesto to feel the brand.
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In terms of feelings from the last two years, 85.76% of conversations are positive and the attributes most related to the brand — love, engagement, presence in everyday life — account for 82.3% of mentions. The brand was sucked into the same symbolic territory that dominates Brazilian timelines: sport, celebration, leisure. It’s the mayonnaise that appears in the reviews, on the barbecue, in the feed and on early morning scores.
The curious thing is that the strength even extends to spelling. Brazil continues to write the brand name in four different ways. Hellmanns 42.65%, Hellmann’s 37.07%, Hellmans 14.21%, Helmans 6.08%. Confusion does not overturn preference. On the contrary, it confirms the non-obvious obvious: strong identity does not depend on an apostrophe; depends on presence, repertoire and cultural repetition.
Was it on purpose or did they travel in the mayonnaise?
Brands don’t need to save the planet. They need to be indispensable in people’s lives and profitable for those who keep them alive. Hellmann’s does both when it exchanges corporate speak for cultural utility.
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Unilever reframed the discussion in the right place by stopping pushing purpose where it doesn’t fit and demanding performance where it needs to appear. In numbers, the strategy breathes. In searches and memes, the brand smiles.
