Heinz has publicly apologised after a QR code on one of its products sent a man to a pornographic website.
The company uses “Quick Response” matrix barcodes to promote its products, but the ploy didn’t work out this time.
Daniel Korell, of Germany, scanned a code on the back of a bottle with his smartphone, and ended up on a hardcore porn site.
Heinz originally owned the domain, but its tenure expired back in 2014. It was then bought up by German adult site Fundorado.
Unfortunately, this meant that an unspecified number of Heinz ketchup bottles in Germany now link to the adult website instead of Heinz’ own page.
“Your ketchup really isn’t for under-age people,” said Korell, writing On Heinz’s Facebook page. “Even if the bottle was a leftover, it’s still in lots of households.”
He added: “It’s incomprehensible that you didn’t reserve the domain for one or two years. It really doesn’t cost the Earth…it’s just plain embarrassing.”
Korell tested the code using several smartphones, all of which turned up the same response.
Heinz quickly replied to the traumatised sauce customer, saying it “very much regrets” the matter, and “will gladly take up your suggestions for the implementation of future campaigns.”
The food manufacturer also promised to compensate Korell by creating a ketchup label with a message specified by him.
Was the Heinz sauce simply too spicy for the kitchen cupboard? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
