I’ve read the story behind this post several times… And I still can’t figure out why it’s so compelling. Folks have been eating ketchup on their eggs for generations. Why talk about the newstalgization of Ketchup with such ‘shock and awe’?
Shakshuka: Perhaps the ultimate expression of ‘Ketchup on your eggs’
cuisine in the world. There’s no debate at all in West Africa…
I’m not a Ketchup-on-my-eggs person. But my beloved birth Dad was. He was often chided for his habit when home here to Canada for the summer. But he was right in tune with about 85 percent of the mostly older, ‘Snowbird’ crowd in Florida who breakfasted at his fave breakfast joint, The Good Egg, in Ft. Myers Beach, FL.
Nevertheless…
Food & Wine contributor Derin Yilmaz does appear to be a member of one of the younger gens. And maybe she simply missed the last wave of notoriety enjoyed by the Ketchup-on-everything pheno-menon. But I’m pretty sure Heinz’s plan to newstaslgize its flagship condiment as a breakfast staple isn’t as big a deal as Yilmaz makes it sound.
She writes – oh, so dramatically – in a recent F&W story: “For the first time in over 150 years, the clas-sic American brand — best known for its condiments, canned foods, and snacks — is ‘strategically disrupting Americans’ morning routines’ by rebranding its iconic ketchup as a breakfast condiment with a brand-new label: Breakfast Ketchup.”
A major new ad campaign – apparently aimed at those (mostly younger) folks who aren’t aware of Ketchup’s previous association with breakfast – is hanging it’s slogan ‘hat’ on the notion that: “Ketchup at breakfast should be the norm, not the exception.”
Highly debated?
Heinz, itself, already knew this. In a companion statement, the company admits: “Heinz Tomato Ketchup was first introduced in 1876 and has remained a staple in many households’ refrigerators,” the company begins. Associate Brand Communications Director, Jamie Mack, continues, “Go to any diner or breakfast spot in America, and you’ll almost certainly find a bottle of ketchup on the table. Yet, the question of whether ketchup belongs on breakfast foods is highly debated.”
I don’t know highly debated the issue is with the kids. I DO know from what I read and what I see on the screen, a surprising (to me) number of the younger Gens are portrayed as using hot sauce on their eggs and other breakfast cuisine items. I guess I’ve been equating the YG’s hot sauce habit with the older G’s Ketchup obsession.
My take
What has me most confused is… Heinz’s ‘Ketchup is for Breakfast’ campaign isn’t hyping any change AT ALL in the product to match the slogan. In fact, the Heinz website confirms, “the Breakfast Ketchup is the same exact formula as the Heinz Ketchup, ‘that you know and love, reframed as an official breakfast condiment’.”
It may be the ultimate newstalgia campaign: A Niagara Falls of indoor, outdoor and screen-based advertising, a temporary change in bottle labelling, and a concerted effort to get some viral social media ‘debate’ started about the ‘ketchup for breakfast’ issue. But no actual new or renewed product to hang it all on…
‘All sizzle but no steak’ as they used to say? An ‘all-hat, no cattle’ cowboy? An all ketchup, no eggs campaign?
~ Maggie J.