Heinz Wants Restaurants To Stop Committing ‘Ketchup Fraud’ With Imposter Sauces

Bottles of Heinz ketchup are a common sight in many restaurants across the country, ranging from chain outlets to hole-in-the-wall diners. However, patrons sometimes find that the condiment found in these establishments don’t always taste up to scratch.

That’s because of a widespread problem the company wants to draw attention to: restaurant owners refilling Heinz bottles with inferior, generic ketchup brands “pretending” to be the thick and rich sauce customers are familiar with.

According to the brand, consumers have been catching this nefarious act in the flesh, snapping pictures of the “ketchup fraud,” and uploading the stories onto social media. Inspired by a Snapchat post, the firm is now launching a new campaign to publicly call out this behavior.

Emphasizing the brand’s core message of “it has to be Heinz,” the company will be putting up large-scale billboards in New York City and Chicago, alongside advertisements in magazines, newspapers, and on social media platforms, to spotlight the ongoing issue.

Fans who spot Heinz bottles in stores can help out by ensuring the ketchup truly is Heinz. If it’s an imposter, the firm hopes loyal fans will call out the fraud on its Instagram account by tagging the offending restaurants. The idea was created in collaboration with Rethink, Publicis 57, and Zeno.

“The inspiration for this campaign came from a Snapchat. One simple but powerful Snapchat that we just couldn’t stop thinking about. We saw someone caught in the act of refilling Heinz with generic ketchup, which prompted us to dig in further,” explained Marketing Director Megan Lang.

“Through social listening, we discovered this was a true and widespread behavior. 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?”

[via Heinz]