Heinz Turned a Common Restaurant Scam Into a Genius Ad Campaign
For most people, ketchup means Heinz. It’s the brand that set the standard, and also the one people expect when they reach for the condiment. But many times in restaurants, what looks like Heinz on the outside isn’t actually so on the inside.
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Cheaper sauces are often poured into those bottles, and diners are unaware of the difference. That scam could have stayed a little secret in the food industry. Instead, Heinz turned it into one of the boldest ad campaigns in recent memory.
Heinz Flips the Script
Instead of hiding the problem, Heinz rolled out a campaign that played directly on the idea of impostors. Print ads showed identical Heinz bottles side by side with the caption: “Even we can’t tell the difference from the outside.”
Billboards popped up in New York and Chicago. The brand’s social media posts invited customers to call out restaurants they suspected of swapping sauces. And the prize for catching ketchup fraud in the wild was a year’s supply of the real deal. Rather than scolding or shaming, Heinz let everyone know they were in on the trend using humor. The underlying point was that while everything else might look the part, the taste will sell it short.
Why It Worked
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By asking people to report fraud, Heinz turned loyal fans into active participants. Second, they highlighted their dominance without even saying “buy our product.” If someone is faking Heinz, it proves Heinz is the standard.
Finally, they built a cultural moment out of what could have been an awkward brand issue. It became a meme-worthy talking point online and in restaurants. It also showed how packaging itself can be a brand asset. The bottle, with its instantly recognizable design, carried enough weight that even its misuse could be flipped into advertising gold.
By putting the scam front and center, the company strengthened the bond between product and customer and turned fraud into free advertising.