On National Braai Day, Heinz marked its arrival in South African braai culture with a Heritage Day celebration in Johannesburg, bringing people together around the fire for a proudly South African day of food, music, art and togetherness.
From the ground, 125 braais became 125 places for South Africans to gather, cook, eat and connect. From the sky, they formed the Heinz label, one enormous symbol of Heinz finding its place in Mzansi.
Rather than telling South Africans how to braai, Heinz, a food brand with over 150 years of heritage, came to bring its own taste to the table and let South Africans decide for themselves.
And Mzansi answered.
Heritage meets heritage
As part of the celebration, Heinz partnered with South African artist, Ricollin to paint a tribute to South African heritage in Heinz Tomato Ketchup. Working live, Ricollin brought together symbols of South Africa, its people, its food and its culture, around the Heinz bottle, as guests watched two heritages meet on a single canvas.
It was bold. It was proudly South African. And it could only have been Heinz.
“Heritage Day is about honouring where we come from. Heinz has spent over 150 years on family tables around the world and seeing that heritage meet South Africa’s around 125 fires was deeply moving. We didn’t come to tell South Africans how to braai. We came to earn our place at the table, and today Mzansi made room for us,” says Passant El-Ghannam, CMO Middle East & Africa, Kraft Heinz.
Call it ketchup. Call it tomato sauce. Just taste what your braai has been missing.
With Heinz on the table around every fire, perhaps the name matters less than the taste. And that taste is something Heinz never compromises on. Heinz is obsessed with quality: every bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup starts with tomatoes grown from Heinz’s own seeds, so it has the same balanced taste, right colour and rich texture anywhere in the world.
Heinz arrived with a story of its own. On Heritage Day, it celebrated the story of the country it now wants to call home.
125 braais became one Heinz Keystone label.
Ketchup became paint.
More than 2,000 strangers became one Heritage Day celebration.
For one big day in Johannesburg, Heinz didn’t simply put its sauce on the braai.
Heinz became part of the braai.
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