Slow news day forces media to report on new ketchup packets
With little happening in food news last week (well, before the Mildred’s story broke), such media outlets as the Toronto Star and Montreal Gazette resorted to reporting on Heinz’s new single-serving ketchup packets. The New York Daily News travelled from the Bronx to Bay Ridge to collect reactions to the barely newsworthy packaging. One Brooklyn woman, who said she would “relish” getting a decent serving of the red stuff in one go, hates the old version: “You got to squeeze it so hard to get it all out, and it’s not enough.” The Canadian Press hit Covington, Kentucky, to hear this tepid commentary: “Maybe now you won’t have to use your teeth to open them.”
The new model is shaped like the company’s signature bottle, holds three times as much ketchup (which is either wasteful or eco-friendly; we can’t decide which) and is all about options: users can squeeze or dip. “We’ve been exploring it as well,” a Heinz Canada spokeswoman told the Windsor Star, noting that the new pods will come to Canada after adoption in the States. We look forward to another blast of frothy media coverage when they do.
• A classic gets revamped! Heinz gives ketchup packet a makeover [New York Daily News] • Heinz revamps ketchup packet for dippers and squeezers; old ones didn’t cut the mustard [CP]
• Heinz lovers getting a new squeeze [Windsor Star]
• Tomato dips gets a ketchup-date [The Sun]
• Heinz unveils new ketchup packets [National Post]
