Working with VML New York, the brief was specific from the very beginning: license an iconic, universally recognisable song, rewrite the lyrics, re-record it with new talent, and clear everything in time for a Super Bowl campaign running across North America and the UK.

The brief carried three constraints, each of which had to be solved before production could begin. The first was the budget. Licensing an iconic, globally recognisable song for a Super Bowl campaign is expensive by definition, and a comedic re-record with lyric changes pushes that cost significantly higher. The second was creative approval. Rewriting the lyrics of a beloved song with a comedic tone requires the original writers to sign off not just on usage, but on the specific direction the adaptation takes. That's a different, more personal conversation than a standard licensing request.

And the third part was that the entire concept, including the song choice, the lyric direction, and the re-record, needed to be approved before the A-list performer was confirmed and production could start. The campaign had to be greenlit on the strength of the idea alone.

The strategic priority was establishing the creative concept while de-risking the development process before formally approaching rights holders. The team identified that the ideal track needed both massive cultural resonance and a structure that naturally invited audience participation. Crucially, it required a rights holder open to a comedic parody re-record.

To bring the brief to life, MassiveMusic supported VML New York in building out the creative direction. The goal was to transform a universally recognized sing-along into a brand-defining moment, rewriting the lyrics to put sandwiches at the center of the experience. To prevent production delays, MassiveMusic prepared the agency and brand for the financial realities and approval complexities of top-tier catalog licensing, establishing streamlined clearance workflows so the concept could move smoothly into production the moment the final creative direction was approved.

“Sweet Caroline” was the answer. The groundwork was already in place to elevate it as the campaign's hero track. MassiveMusic identified its iconic call-and-response structure as the ultimate strategic asset because audiences complete that melody instinctively. Hellmann's wasn't asking people to learn a new trick, but to step into an existing behavior. A song people finish automatically is a song that already belongs to them.

Navigating the clearance required more than a standard sync request; we engaged Neil Diamond’s team in a personal creative conversation to secure the comedic lyrical reinvention sign-off and ensured the brand was prepared for the cost premium involved. Once the parody was greenlit, the brief was clear: honor everything audiences love about the original's nostalgic warmth while making it unmistakably Hellmann's. The resulting re-record, "Sweet Sandwich Time," successfully transformed a universal crowd-pleaser into a high-energy, brand-defining anthem built for the Super Bowl stage.

The creative effectiveness data tells an equally strong story. Making a social media ad work is significantly harder than making an effective TV ad. On System1's Test Your Ad Social database↗, the average rating for social ads sits at just 1.7 out of 5, with only 10% of ads reaching 3 stars or above. Hellmann's "Sweet Sandwich Time" scored 3.9 among social media users, placing it in the top 5% of all ads tested on the platform, with amusement, excitement, and uplift as the dominant emotional responses.

For a campaign built on the premise that the right song makes people stop and join in, the numbers reflect exactly that. A reimagined anthem, cleared and crafted to work on the world's biggest advertising stage, delivered one of the most measurable proofs of music's role for a brand and in cultural reach.

AMP Award 2026:
Outstanding Adaptation or Arrangement (Shortlist)

Hollywood Reporter ↗

Creative Salon ↗

Creative Agency: VML New York

Music Supervisor: Alex Menck

Music Coordination: Lorenzo Lautz

Demo Production: Brian Sherman

Demo Production: Dale Mason