Heinz made every fry box look like its 150-year-old label

French fries can be served in countless restaurants, but their cartons often share the same familiar shape. Heinz noticed that this universal fry box closely resembles the outline of its own label.

Look Familiar? turned that resemblance into a global campaign. Created by Rethink Toronto, the work invited people to see the Heinz identity inside an object already associated with ketchup.

The observation helped Heinz make a larger argument. Fries do not simply belong with ketchup. They belong with Heinz.

A fry box was already shaped like the Heinz label

Heinz has used its distinctive keystone-shaped label for approximately 150 years. The silhouette has become one of the brand’s most recognisable visual assets.

Rethink found the same general outline in the cartons used to serve fries around the world. Wider at the top and narrower towards the bottom, the fry box looked like a three-dimensional version of the Heinz label.

The campaign placed that shape at the centre of its creative work. Instead of relying on product claims or price comparisons, the posters asked viewers to recognise a visual connection hiding in front of them.

Once noticed, the resemblance became difficult to separate. Every fry box could begin reminding people of Heinz, even when the restaurant serving it stocked another ketchup brand.

Heinz claimed a universal object as brand media

Rising food prices were encouraging shoppers to consider cheaper alternatives. Rather than joining a price war, Heinz reinforced the distinctive association it had already built between its ketchup and fries.

The fry box gave the brand a way to appear at the exact moment people were thinking about the food. An ordinary piece of packaging effectively became unpaid visual reinforcement for Heinz.

The idea also travelled without depending on language. A picture of a fry box could communicate the same observation across markets, allowing the campaign to maintain one recognisable execution around the world.

Look Familiar? appeared through posters, print, social content and video. Its outdoor placements were positioned in city centres and transit locations where people regularly bought and ate food while travelling.

One particularly contextual placement appeared in the Shanghai metro station closest to McDonald’s China’s office, allowing Heinz to place its visual claim near one of the world’s most recognisable sellers of fries.

Uber Eats connected recognition with ordering

The campaign moved beyond awareness through an integration with Uber Eats. When customers ordered fries, the platform gave them a way to add Heinz Ketchup, including orders from restaurants that did not ordinarily provide it.

This extended the campaign’s central argument into commerce. The posters established that a fry box looked like Heinz, while the delivery integration helped ensure the fries inside could arrive with the product.

By connecting outdoor media with ordering behaviour, Heinz reduced the distance between recognising the idea and acting on it.

The visual travelled across 33 markets

The campaign appeared across 33 markets, with major outdoor executions running in countries including China, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and the United Kingdom.

It reached 42% of the audience in the UAE and 33% in Toronto. In the United States, the Uber Eats integration contributed to a 222% increase in Heinz sales through the platform.

The campaign also reported wider commercial growth. US distribution points increased by 9.78%, while Canadian household penetration rose by 3.38 percentage points to 10.31%. Heinz recorded an $18.5 million gross sales value in Canada during 2025.

Volume market share increased by 4.37% in the UK and 3.58% in Mexico. The campaign also generated more than 150 media mentions, with Heinz appearing in 86% of the resulting headlines.

One shape strengthened an existing food pairing

Look Familiar? did not need to invent a new relationship between ketchup and fries. It used design to make an existing relationship feel proprietary to Heinz.

The fry box became a reminder of the label, the label became a reminder of the product and the product became the natural completion of the meal.

The simplicity and global flexibility of the idea earned Look Familiar? the Grand Prix in Print & Publishing at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Credits

Look Familiar?, 2025. Brand Heinz Ketchup. Creative agency Rethink, Toronto. Global campaign under the It Has to Be Heinz platform. Commerce partner Uber Eats. The campaign ran across outdoor, print, social, video and delivery platforms in 33 markets and received the 2026 Cannes Lions Grand Prix in Print & Publishing.