Why is Heinz, Heinz 57 - what is the 57??

Answer 1

Heinz 57 is a shortened, popular form of the "57 Varieties" slogan of the H. J. Heinz Company. In its early days, the company wanted to advertise the great number of choices of canned and bottled foods it offered for sale, although the number 57 was chosen arbitrarily, as in fact by 1892 they had more than 60 products. The company now has more than 1100 products.

Answer 2

"57 varieties" means absolutely nothing! It was just a "marketing gimmick".

In 1896, Henry John Heinz was riding an elevated train in New York when he spied an advertising placard in the train car promoting "21 styles" of shoes; struck by the concept, and recognizing that catchiness and resonance were far more important qualities for a company slogan than literal accuracy, Heinz cast about for the perfect number to use for his own company's version of the phrase. Settling on fifty-seven, Heinz soon put the number to work, and within a week the sign of the green Heinz pickle bearing the words "57 Varieties" was everywhere Heinz "could find a place to stick it." He soon ordered the construction of a six-story, twelve-hundred-light display featuring a forty-foot pickle; installed at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 23rd Street in New York City, this electric marvel dazzled New York residents and tourists until 1906.

Answer 3

The 57 different types of whatever heinz make- sauces? There actually are more than 57, but it was an advertising thing.

Answer 4

Heinz 57 varieties. Now it is more used to describe a mongrel dog. You know ... he's a heinz 57.

Answer 5

1896 - Henry Heinz turns more than 60 products into "57 Varieties." The magic number becomes world-renowned and now is virtually synonymous with the H.J. Heinz Company.
http://www.heinz.com/Milestones.aspx

As Heinz markets have grown from local to national to global — from one product to a dozen, made famous through the 57 Varieties slogan at the turn of the century.
http://www.heinz.com/History.aspx

Answer 6

they are called heinz 57 because they make 57 varieties of food.

Answer 7

Okay boring answer.
When Heinz came up with the 57 varieties logo there was already over 100 varieties in the Heinz range.
He just thought it sounded good!

Answer 8

at the time there were 57 varieties of heinz products being made.

Answer 9

Per Google:
The number 57 has mystical significance to the Heinz company, but it has never had much to do with reality. The slogan was invented by the company's founder, Henry J. Heinz, in 1892 while he was cruising around on the elevated in New York one day. Whilst reading the car cards on the ceiling, his eye alighted on the slogan "21 styles of shoes." To pedestrian minds such as our own, R.B., this probably does not sound like one of your landmark advertising mottoes, but that's why we're not millionaire ketchup barons. Heinz, on the other hand, could recognize genius when he saw it. Cogitating briefly, he soon conceived the immortal words "57 varieties," whereupon he got off the train and set about plastering the nation with the now-famous pickle-plus-number logo. The one problem with this scheme was that at the time the company was manufacturing more than 60 varieties. However, Heinz stuck with 57, for what his biographer describes as "occult reasons."

Heinz, as may already be evident, was something of a character. He started off bottling horseradish in a little town near Pittsburgh in 1869 (ketchup did not arrive on the scene until 1876). He made a major selling point of the fact that he put his product in clear glass bottles, thus demonstrating that he did not adulterate his sauce with turnips or other false vegetables, as his competitors did.

Once Heinz hit on the notion of "57 varieties," he constructed a number of hideous advertising signs at various strategic locales around the country. One, which was six stories high, was located at 23rd and 5th Avenue in New York City and dazzled tourists with a 40-foot-long electrified pickle. Heinz also built an exhibition hall in Atlantic City on a pier that extended 900 feet out into the ocean; another monstrous pickle, this one 70 feet tall, perched heroically on the end.

After a few more demonstrations of this style of architecture, the citizenry became alarmed lest Heinz encumber every landmark in the Republic with giant pickles. When a rumor (unfounded, it appears) got out that he had purchased Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennesee, in order to scrape off the side and sculp a pickle of unprecedented proportions in the native granite, or whatever it is they have out there, there was a general uproar, with one partisan threatening to pickle Heinz 57 ways if he tried it.

The Heinz people are still quite attached to the number 57. The phone number at corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh is 237-5757, and the address is P.O. Box 57. One of their salesman was a player for the Pittsburgh Steelers at one time, and you'll never guess what his number was. It is enough to make you want to swear off ketchup forever.

lol

Answer 10

I was always told Heinz had 57 different varieties of food on offer, when they first started............now, who knows how many they have?