Look Familiar?
Heinz pointed out that the standard fry box is the shape of its Keystone label, then ran the plain box as its ad.
- Brand
- Heinz
- Agency
- Rethink
- Market
- Global
- Region
- Global
- Year
- 2025
The challenge
Ketchup and fries go together, but fries aren't always served with Heinz, and as ketchup prices rose, Heinz's market share began to fall, the agency's case says. Rethink's D&AD entry: 'we needed to prove that when it comes to fries, it can't just be any ketchup - it has to be Heinz.'
The idea
Heinz's September 2025 release announced a global campaign built on the observation that fry boxes in restaurants around the world look like the Heinz Keystone. Key visuals paired a plain fry box with the line 'It has to be', and the print executions ran as unbranded, copy-free spreads in newspapers including The New York Times (Rethink's Clio entry). It ran in the US, UAE, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Brazil, Germany and China across outdoor, video, shoppable digital, social and influencers, with an Uber Eats offer in some markets; in the UAE the outdoor ads were adapted into Arabic with PHD UAE (Campaign Middle East).
Results
- 1.6 billion global impressions and a 222% increase in US in-platform sales through Uber Eats, according to Heinz and Rethink, as reported by Reason Why
Case study source: Campaign Middle East Source ↗
Awards
- Cannes Lions 2026Print & Publishing LionsGrand Prix
- Cannes 2026: Bronze in Outdoor, and Gold in Outdoor for the same campaign entered as 'Coincidence?'
- D&AD 2026: Graphite Pencil (Media / Integrated) and Wood Pencil (Media / Press & Outdoor), entered as 'Can't Have Fries Without Heinz'
Credits
- Media
- Carat
- PR
- Zeno Group
- UAE roll-out
- PHD UAE
- PR in the UAE
- Current Global MENAT
- Music
- Grayson Music
- Editing
- School Editing
