Fraud

Apparently, “ketchup fraud” is a thing.

Such fraud, according to Heinz, happens when restaurants fill their iconic bottles with off-brand ketchup to save some money and hoodwink unsuspecting customers. The practice is at the center of a new, national campaign announced this week.

“Even when it isn’t Heinz, it has the be Heinz” the copy reads while showing restaurant workers committing “fraud.”

The campaign has garnered a good amount of attention.

It’s visually striking, was born out of an insight from a Snapchat post, and will have social media activations to leverage user-generated content.

A lot of folks seem to love it. We’re on the fence.

Heinz’s most distinctive asset is not the taste of its ketchup; it’s the shape of the bottle (and the design of the label.)

In fact, two years ago, Heinz celebrated this fact by asking people to “draw ketchup.” The result was a masterful campaign that featured people’s drawings, all showing their recall of Heinz’s bottle and label.

That campaign, from two years ago, reinforced the fact that when people think about ketchup, they think about Heinz. Clearly, then, everyone agrees Heinz is the choice for ketchup.

Now, according to the new campaign, any ketchup can be passed off as Heinz. And you don’t know when. If that’s the case, what value do the iconic bottle and label designs have?