The “Pass The Heinz” Posters Command Attention Through Bold, Savory Imagery
Design agency David The Agency was tasked with revolutionizing the Heinz brand, coming up with a variety of video and print campaigns to give the brand a modern edge, establishing itself as a leader in the condiments industry.
And their new campaign has some very retro roots.
The Heinz brand pulled the trigger on a decades-old, fictional campaign that used bold, retro imagery set against a clean background to emphasize the Heinz brand.
These posters sit as billboards and in magazines. They are bold and in your face, but what really catches your attention are the bright images that take up most of the design.
And these images aren’t of the ketchup.
Instead, the brand went with images of foods commonly used with ketchup. They used images of fries, meat, and burgers to talk about the brand and its products. And what better complement to a burger and fries than ketchup, right?
Nearly the entire poster is made up of this photography — from a piece of juicy steak on a fork to a pile of crinkle cut fries. These foods make you hungry. They make you salivate. And they make you say the phrase, “Pass The Heinz.”
That’s the only additional copy on the image. And it drops the product itself, opting to use the brand name in place of the product to give it a modern edge. We all know that Heinz does ketchup, so why bother calling it ketchup when saying Heinz makes just as much sense?
That’s the innovative nature of this design.
These prints work to give the brand a new edge and a new identity — one Don Draper was trying to instill in decades past but didn’t go into application until the 21st century.
Branding took a shift with this campaign, aligning the brand as a leader in the condiments industry and using simplicity and bold imagery to do so.
It’s also an innovative choice to opt out of using the product at all in its design. It’s a risky move — not including the product in the design has the potential to make people forget about the brand’s prominent products.
But in this poster campaign, it works.