HEINZ recruited restaurant customers to lobby owners about serving the brand’s ketchup

Condiment brand Heinz encouraged people to add an extra $1 tip to their meal check if they dined out during December at a restaurant where any ketchup other than Heinz’s was on the table—not to thank the eatery for its failure to serve Heinz ketchup but to lobby it to switch to that brand. What Heinz wanted people to do was write on the credit card slip the words “Tip for Heinz” and insert the amount of $1 as a way of expressing their hope that management will replace the other brand with Heinz. Diners who did this were also asked to take a photo of the slip and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #TipforHeinz in order to receive reimbursement for the tip and to be entered in a sweepstakes for reimbursement of the full dinner tab (Heinz set aside $125,000 to cover the reimbursements). Additionally, Heinz promised a free year’s supply of ketchup to the first ten restaurants that made the switch in response to the “Tip for Heinz” campaign.