Purple Ketchup
Monday, March 1, 2004 – We have our first all-hands-on-deck staff meeting this afternoon, at which I plan to resurrect my story about green and purple ketchup. I’ve told this story on a number of different occasions in the past, whenever I want to make a point about creativity and change. I’ll ask my audience to put themselves in the shoes of H.J. Heinz executives the first time someone suggested the company offer its traditional red ketchup in both “Blastin’ Green” and “Funky Purple.” Of course, such a notion must have seemed farfetched, almost foolish, at the time. But just a few years later, young, impressionable children — including my own two boys, Scott and Ben — couldn’t get enough of these two new shades of the condiment. Now I’m not going to suggest we change the name of our agency to Purplefin, but I do plan to join forces with my colleagues here to help effect change and squeeze out every ounce of our creativity.
