Following the success of ketchup, Henry Heinz produced a variety of pickles, relishes, fruit butters, and horseradishes. But his company as yet had no identifiable slogan. In the early 1890s, while riding in a New York City elevated subway car, Heinz spotted a sign above a local store: "21 Styles of Shoes." In a moment of inspiration, he reworked the phrase, upped the number, and created what would become one of the most famous numerical slogans in advertising: "57 Varieties." At the time, the company actually produced sixty-five different products; Henry Heinz simply liked the way the number 57 looked in print.

Source(s): Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, pp. 402-403.

Last updated: 10 June 2010
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