Heinz Ketchup Makes ‘Major’ Change To Product After More Than A Century
Posted January 19, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It may not quite be the icon that the Coca-Cola symbol is or have the recognition factor of McDonald’s Golden Arches, but a change is coming to a product you use every day, replacing something that’s been there for more than a century.
Heinz Ltd. has confirmed it’s doing away with the little green pickle that’s been on the label of the world’s best selling ketchup (top left) since the 1890s.
The company is replacing the out-of-place gherkin with something that makes a lot more sense – the tomato. The fruit, which some consider a vegetable, is a more logical choice to shine on a product made from the famous crop.
So how did its counterpart ever get on there in the first place? It turns out company founder H.J. Heinz began handing out pickle pins to customers at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair to promote his popular condiment.
They were such a hit, the product became known for them and they wound up on the label when the ketchup began being mass marketed before the turn of the century. And no one thought of changing it all these years later.
Until now.
And so, the dill will soon die. “With all due respect to the pickle, which has served Heinz dutifully since the 19th century, we are shifting the spotlight to the tomato,” Chairman William Johnson explains in a statement. (And yes, they actually issued a statement about this.)
The new pickle-less Heinz ketchup bottle will appear on store shelves later this year.
Photo credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images
