What do you do when times are tough? Reinvention! Tropicana (and Pepsi) have already done it, and now Heinz is getting in on the action. Gone are the days when the tasty gherkin graced the label. Did you ever notice it? The gherkin has shrunk over the years, once looking quite hefty (look to the right), and now an almost-forgotten blip at the bottom of the label. Blip or not, it's been on the bottles for over 100 years, and now Heinz Ketchup is trading it in for a "vine-ripened tomato" and a new tagline: "Grown not made."
I get the switch, since nothing about a gherkin makes you think of ketchup, but does it really matter? Does putting a vine-ripened tomato on the label make a difference? I guess I'm just crusty about everything continually changing to look modern. Old isn't necessarily bad. Remember the wave of nostalgia that came with those old Coke bottles? Poor gherkin. Couldn't the pickle and tomato just share?
1-21-2009 @10:56AM christopher said... With all the fuss of hfcs and refined foods its no wonder they're jumping on board. Hellmenn's is running a similar add about their mayo being real food. Marketers can see that people want real food because some books told them to and since most people don't know what real food is they just need to be assured from manufacturers that their products are real. That's too bad that it'll be another 100 years before people can be sad the tomato is leaving the label :-(
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1-21-2009 @2:02PM Alex said... That is true marketing spin to consider High fructose corn syrup "grown and not made" !
I'll make my own or buy organic, thanks
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