Don't forget the ketchup

Enough of anti-advertising angst — some companies should be commended for treating marketing as an art. Heinz Ketchup’s creative ad team deserves a medal for the character they’ve given the condiment. Their televised campaign vignettes have made ketchup funny. One of the advertising spots features a close-up of an almost-emptied ketchup bottle moving slowly over a hamburger as a narrator contemplates the forgotten ketchup at the bottom of the bottle — some of which is thrown away, without ever seeing a plate of fries. The last line plugs the bizarre personification of pureed tomatoes: “Heinz Ketchup: Some of it (pause) has issues.” On a recent trip to the supermarket, the red bottle of displaced humor caught my eye: Continuing with the thematically odd musings, the container’s label read nothing but “PUT HAMBURGERS ON IT.”