“Just take a break…” What? If you happened to blink (or haven’t opened TikTok recently), you might have missed the fact that Heinz Kit Kats flavored with tomato ketchup are this month’s foodie trend. Neither Heinz nor Nestlé are complaining. In fact, they wholeheartedly encourage this crime against the senses.
The brand teased KitKat Chap flavor of KitKat on Instagram, having employees sample the unlikely combination. The response shows how brands can leverage the exposure of an organic viral trend if they act quickly, but it’s a tricky game: Some are confused as to whether KitKat Chap is even a real product, and those who are unaware of the viral trend are even more confused.
The trend of eating KitKats with ketchup seems to have started organically on TikTok. We won’t get into the merits of the bitter-sweet-umami combination here, but some people find it works surprisingly well, while others find it’s not as bad as they thought it would be.
@ptz321 ♬ What Not to Do for Love – Bobby Caldwell
Heinz and KitKat quickly responded with a coordinated move to capitalize on the trend, which is all the more surprising considering that with two brands involved, it would take twice as many people to get approved: On TikTok, each company posted videos of their staff trying out the combo, followed by the joint Instagram post above.
@heinzuk ♬ Trendsetters – Connor Price & Javier Mighty
To be clear, KitKat’s KitKat Chap flavor branding is a mockup and doesn’t exist — at least for now — but it’s interesting to consider how well this move works out for each brand and how it fits with the recent trend of brands being less protective of their own assets (see Loewe x On’s hybrid logo and the distorted Coca-Cola logo).
With the phrase “Take a break with Heinz,” Kit Kat seems to water down the famous catchphrase (with ketchup), while Heinz cleverly exploits it with their own comment, “Even a Kit Kat has to be Heinz.”
But despite their reckless handling of their brand identities, Heinz and KitKat work together pretty well as brands (we won’t comment on the taste; both companies have taken a very playful approach to branding in the past, and if any brands could pull off a collaboration like this, it’s probably these two).
