It’s Halloween month, and Heinz is promoting its ‘Tomato Blood’. That’s its regular ketchup with some spooky branding, if you were wondering.

To do so it is leaning heavily on comedy film What We Do in the Shadows, and its TV spin-off series. The film/show gets laughs by playing up the banality of life for a modern vampire – and that life is further complicated for this ad’s star, 280-year-old Toby, who tells us he’s a vegetarian.

Toby plays into the ‘weedy veggie’ stereotype – and we see him extol the virtues of friendship with humans, which they largely repay by nicking his life-force sauce. Still, his attempt to convert vamps (and us) to veggie blood is rather charming – and if people can be persuaded to drink it neat, like Toby does, Heinz is on to a winner.

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