Heinz is getting unusually precise about how much ketchup people want, introducing a new bottle cap that lets users control the flow with three different settings.
Created with industrial design studio Beta Design Office and Wieden+Kennedy London, the limited-edition Love Lid turns the familiar Heinz bottle into something closer to an adjustable nozzle. The bottle itself remains largely unchanged, with the cap positioned at the bottom and flipped open before squeezing.
The difference is in the lid. Users can snap it between three settings — Like, Love and Crazy Love — with each position changing the amount of ketchup released from the bottle. The further you go, the heavier the flow.
Heinz says the idea came from an unlikely place: a Reddit discussion about how much ketchup people typically use. Rather than treating those habits as insignificant, the company turned them into the basis for a small piece of packaging design built around personal preference.
The Love Lid is essentially an attempt to give the squeeze itself a setting. A little ketchup, a generous amount, or something considerably less restrained, the choice is made before the bottle even reaches the plate.
The project forms part of Heinz‘s recent interest in adapting its packaging around the rituals that have developed around its products. Earlier this year, the company introduced a fry box with an integrated pocket specifically designed to hold ketchup for dipping.
There is also a certain logic to the obsession. Heinz ketchup has been sold in the US since 1876 and has since become a global staple, with more than 650 million bottles reportedly sold each year. North America remains its biggest market, but the bottle has long since travelled far beyond it.
For Heinz, the Love Lid is less about reinventing ketchup than acknowledging that there is no universal way to use it. Some people want a precise line across their fries. Others want the entire plate involved.
The limited-edition cap simply gives both camps a setting.
