Heinz ads take aim at restaurants that refill its iconic bottles with generic ketchup

Heinz Ketchup is back with another fun campaign from Rethink, this one taking stock, in typically engaging fashion, of another consumer behavior—or actually, restaurateur behavior, with the consumer peeking in. The campaign, called “Ketchup Fraud,” centers on restaurants that refill Heinz Ketchup bottles with generic ketchup, in an attempt to save a few bucks. The campaign, showing restaurant workers caught in the act, includes large-scale OOH placements in New York City and Chicago, along with magazine ads, newspaper inserts and social media. Megan Lang, marketing director at Heinz North America, said the insight came from a Snapchat video. “We saw someone caught in the act of refilling Heinz with generic ketchup, which prompted us to dig in further—and through social listening we discovered this was a true and widespread behavior,” she said. “We thought, what better way to express our core brand belief that ‘It Has to Be Heinz’ than to simply amplify an existing consumer behavior in a supportive and funny way?” The brand provided the screenshot below, which appears to come from a 2016 video that was later posted on Twitter—and appeared to show the restaurant chain Nando’s engaging in ketchup fraud. (Nando’s claimed it was using the squeezable container for easier decantation—that it still contained Heinz.) “It’s a real behavior that we noticed all over the world and wanted to bring to light,” said Mike Dubrick, chief creative officer and partner for Rethink. “It shows just how much weight the Heinz brand carries and how much even just the bottle speaks to quality.” Dubrick said the work came from a cross-office collaboration, including Toronto and the newly formed New York office. “We really leaned on the whole team to bring to life such a global behavior,” he said. “While we’re flattered by the behavior, ultimately we want to make it unnecessary and are excited to work with the restaurants to do so.” That latter goal involves going beyond the ads by asking consumers to use Instagram to tag their favorite restaurants who they suspect of committing ketchup fraud. Heinz will connect with the most-tagged restaurants directly and “work together with them to find a solution,” the brand said. Media for the campaign was handled by Starcom’s Publicis 57 team. Rethink has earned widespread acclaim for its Heinz Ketchup work in recent years. Those efforts have included “Draw Ketchup” (where they asked consumers to do just that—and they invariably drew Heinz), “Ketchup AI” (where they asked AI to do the same) and “Heinz Vintage Drip” (a line of thrifted clothing featuring ketchup stains).

Heinz ads take aim at restaurants that refill its iconic bottles with generic ketchup

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