‘Have a break, have a…’ Wait, what? If you happen to have blinked (or just haven’t opened TikTok recently, you might have missed the fact that a KitKat smoothered in Heinz Tomato Ketchup is apparently the gastronomic trend of the month. And neither Heinz nor Nestlé is complaining. In fact, they’re wholeheartedly encouraging the crime against taste buds.
The brands have teased a KitKat’chup flavour KitKat on Instagram, and they’ve even been forcing their employees to try the unlikely combination. The response shows how brands can take advantage of exposure from a spontaneous viral trend if they act fast, but it’s a tricky game to play. Some people are confused about whether KitKat’chup is a real product, and those unfamiliar with the viral trend are doubly baffled.
The trend of trying a KitKat with Ketchup spread on it appears to have begun organically on TikTok. We won’t get into the merits of the combination of bitter, sweet and umami; suffice it to say, some people say it works surprisingly well and others say it’s just as bad as you might think.
Heinz and KitKat moved pretty fast to respond with coordinated actions to take advantage of the trend – all the more surprising when there are two brands involved and double the number of people needed to approve things. On TikTok, they’ve each posted videos showing their own staff trying the combination. That was followed by the joint Instagram post above.
To clarify, the Kitkat’chup flavour KitKat branding is a mockup and does not exist. At least not currently. But it’s interesting to consider how well the move works for each of the brands, and how it fits with the recent trend for brands to be less protective of their assets (see the Loewe x On hybrid logo and the warped Coca-Cola logo).
With the phrase “Have a break, have a Heinz,” KitKat could be seen as diluting (with Ketchup) its famous tagline, while Heinz took clever advantage with a comment riffing on its own: “Even when it’s KitKat, It Has to be Heinz”.
However but for all the reckless treatment of their brand identities, Heinz and KitKat do go together fairly well (as brands; I’m not commenting on the taste. They’ve both taken a very playful approach to their branding in the past. If anyone can get away with such a collab, perhaps its these two brands.
