Heinz Apologizes After Ketchup Bottle QR Code Leads Man To Adult Website
Heinz has apologized after their ketchup bottle QR code linked a man to an adult website.
Daniel Korell received quite the surprise when he scanned the QR code on the back of a ketchup bottle to enter a contest in Germany. Rather than being taken to the Heinz site, Korell was directed to the porn site FunDorado, which specializes in live web cam girls. He took a photo of the ketchup bottle’s QR code, and the site that came up, and posted it to Facebook.
“Your ketchup is probably nothing for minors,” Daniel wrote (translated from German to English). “Perhaps you should give time the IT department decision — the posted happened anyway if you scan the QR code on the Heinz bottle. Tested with various mobile phones and QR code readers. Oh, and for direct input of the URL you get the same result.”
Heinz ketchup customers directed to porn website http://t.co/ReEoVkcDFYpic.twitter.com/wQnygJu3zL
— Telegraph News (@TelegraphNews) June 19, 2015
“Even if the bottle was a leftover, it’s still in lots of households,” Korell said in a comment to UPI. “It’s incomprehensible that you didn’t reserve the domain for one or two years. A “.de” domain name really doesn’t cost the Earth.”
Once Heinz heard of the mishap, they immediately issued an apology.
“Heinz in Germany has apologized for the way in which an out-of-date QR code and website link to design a ketchup label in 2014 has been reassigned to an adult content web site,” Michael Mullen, the senior vice president of Corporate & Government Affairs at Heinz, said in a statement to CNN Money.
“Clearly this was never our intention and we are taking steps to avoid this from re-occurring,” a spokesman for Heinz, who is partially owned by Berkshire Hathaway, added.
While FunDorado’s public relations team has not responded to requests for comments, they did send Daniel a message on Facebook, offering him a years subscription to their site.
“Hello Daniel Korell, wow! Has Heinz perhaps confused FunDorado’s Sexy Lila with its Lila Ketchup EZ Squirt? However, you won’t of course be going away empty handed. We’re giving you a year’s free access to FunDorado.com.”
[Photo by Thinglass / Shutterstock.com/]
