Heinz Meanz Blogz

Here’s how not to use the blog as a promotional tool:

New Media Age reports that Heinz is launching its first ad campaign for baked beans in ten years this week. The campaign, aiming to “reinvigorate the brand with a newer, healthier image” revolves around an “energy-packed ‘Superbean’ character who will have his own blog on a specially created microsite”, heinzbeanz.com. Apart from promoting the, er, nutritional value of baked beans, Heinz is also, gasp, “swapping the plural ‘s’ in the Heinz Baked Beans brand for a ‘z’, integrating the famous ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz’ slogan into its first can redesign in Heinz’s 135-year history.” So now you know.

Sadly, though, the blog itself is a travesty of the genre. It’s viewable only in pop-up mode, which I suspect will not work with many browsers. There’s some Flash in there (a bean bouncing around a can), and frames to make the material itself virtually unreadable. The blog entries all carry the same date (today) as far as I can see, and are along these lines:

OK, listen, there’s something I’ve gotta share. I’m worried about your salt intake. Hey, the government’s worried about your salt intake, you’re worried about your salt intake! So what do we do? We cut back on the salt baby. I mean, we ain’t gonna tamper with the taste, don’t get me wrong. But since 2001 I’ve reduced my salt content by 30%.

Oh gawd. Isn’t there some law against this kind of thing being a blog? Or is the whole blogging thing going to be usurped by overpaid ad execs who think this is how to ride the blogging wave?