Heinz ketchup dumps the pickle, public protests

In an effort to market ketchup as a healthier food, Heinz is replacing its century-old pickle with a tomato -- because you know, tomatoes are healthier than pickles.

The USA Today reports that a Facebook group called Save the Heinz Pickle! with over 2,000 members. From the group's page:

In case you haven't heard, Heinz has removed the pickle from all of its ketchup bottles and replaced it with a tomato (See group photo). The pickle is a long-time symbol of Heinz, and this action appears to be a step in the wrong direction from the history and lineage of the company started by Henry J. Heinz. Let's tell Heinz that we want to keep the pickle, as it is a part of Pittsburgh History!

In a sign that someone has way too much time on his hands, the group now has a website: http://www.savethepickle.org/ Heinz says that the tomato is staying.

From a business perspective, this is what makes Heinz such a valuable company. It enjoys such a strong brand that the only real change it's made in its ketchup marketing in years is replacing a pickle with a tomato on a bottle. As we've learned in recent months, executives have a way of messing things up: Heinz Ketchup is pretty hard to mess up. As Kinko's founder turned value investor Paul Orfalea once said about Wrigley's, "What do you think they discuss at Wrigley meetings? 'Should we keep the wrapper green?'"
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