Fifty-seven. It’s probably the most famous number in advertising. It ranks up there with 7-Up, Motel 6, 3M, and Six Flags. But unlike them, this famous number doesn’t represent anything. It was pulled out of thin air by Pittsburgh businessman H.J. Heinz in 1896.
He was making horseradish, pickles, ketchup, and pepper sauce when he saw an advertisement in New York for a store that sold “21 styles of shoes.” He liked the idea of so much variety. He copied the idea and made “57 varieties” his company’s tag line, suggesting that Heinz created far more products than consumers saw. There weren’t 57 of anything, but the suggestion made Heinz popular.
To help promote his brand, Heinz installed a six-foot-tall sign, which used over 1,000 light bulbs, where the Flatiron Building now stands in Manhattan. It proclaimed “57 good things for the table” beneath a 43-foot-long image of a pickle outlined in flashing green light bulbs against an orange and blue background.
The pickle remained Heinz’s logo until 2009, when it was replaced by a tomato on a vine. The claim to 57 varieties remains.
This article is featured in the January/February 2025 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
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Comments
I never knew any of this about the famous number with Heinz. The fact it was pulled out of thin air in 1896 is astonishing in itself. It’s also a number that’s still synonymous with Chevy even to this day, Jeff.