THE 57 VARIETIES
Did you ever wonder what the 57 varieties of Heinz ketchup were? How on earth could anyone come up with 57 types of ketchup to begin with? Well first off the varieties aren't of ketchup at all. They don't even claim that, if you look closer at the label. What they are advertising is the different condiments and products that the Heinz company offers.
James Lileks at his Bleat webpage gives us the whole list, courtesy an old Heinz ad:
James Lileks at his Bleat webpage gives us the whole list, courtesy an old Heinz ad:
I'm not sure they even offer all these, such as "India Relish" (presumably chutney) and "cooked macaroni." Still, the slogan lives on.
An anecdote about Heinz 57. Joe Dimaggio was one of the greatest Yankees of all time, indeed one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In the 1941 season, he started a hitting streak that shattered all previous records. Game after game, he hit and hit, and as he kept adding another game with at least one hit, the Heinz company came up with a great idea.
They offered Joe a $10,000 contract if he could hit safely in 57 straight games. Mind you back then that was a lot of cash, the biggest endorsement deal in the world at the time. Sadly, Joe's streak ended at 56 (although he started up right after that with another hitting streak). If I were the Heinz company I'd have still hired him and had him say as great as his streak was it still wasn't as great as 57 - Heinz 57.
At this time, Heinz has more like 57,000 products, as they own such brand names as Weight Watchers, Boston Market, and Ore-Ida. Oh, by the way, the company that owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster is Purina, the pet food company. Which might explain the quality if their food. They used to own Jack-In-The-Box as well.
An anecdote about Heinz 57. Joe Dimaggio was one of the greatest Yankees of all time, indeed one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In the 1941 season, he started a hitting streak that shattered all previous records. Game after game, he hit and hit, and as he kept adding another game with at least one hit, the Heinz company came up with a great idea.
They offered Joe a $10,000 contract if he could hit safely in 57 straight games. Mind you back then that was a lot of cash, the biggest endorsement deal in the world at the time. Sadly, Joe's streak ended at 56 (although he started up right after that with another hitting streak). If I were the Heinz company I'd have still hired him and had him say as great as his streak was it still wasn't as great as 57 - Heinz 57.
At this time, Heinz has more like 57,000 products, as they own such brand names as Weight Watchers, Boston Market, and Ore-Ida. Oh, by the way, the company that owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster is Purina, the pet food company. Which might explain the quality if their food. They used to own Jack-In-The-Box as well.
posted by Christopher Taylor at 9:04 AM
1 Comments:
That's crazy - I had no idea Heinz owned Weight Watchers!
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