Stay cool, Azizi!

Yup, commercials overseas are definitely different, from everything I've heard and read (never having been overseas myself!). I vaguely remember the slogan "beanz meanz Heinz" going by in my childhood in the 1960s, so perhaps they tried it out here as well as in the UK but it only caught on in the UK.

Riginslinger wonders why the "57 varieties" slogan wasn't capitalized on by Republicans in the 2004 Presidential race against John Kerry, husband of "that Heinz woman" (Teresa Heinz Kerry, widow of H. John Heinz III). I'm sure that that would have violated a copyright on the company's phrase, and that the ensuing legal proceedings and bad publicity against the Republican party would have done them far more harm than whatever small benefit such a slogan might have made to their campaign.

Although the Heinz company was founded near Pittsburgh and has its corporate headquarters there still, John Heinz (heir to the company fortune) had some ties to the Philadelphia area. He was one of Pennsylvania's US Senators from 1977 until his death in 1991, and tragically he died in this neck of the woods. Heinz's small Piper airplane was having landing-gear problems, and the helicopter that was flown out to take a look flew too close and collided with the Piper over an elementary school in Lower Merion. All souls on the airplane and helicopter were killed, along with two little girls in the schoolyard. It was a very shocking and sad day here.

After Heinz's death, a local wildlife refuge was renamed for him, reflecting his dedication to environmental issues. The John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum is 1200 acres of freshwater tidal marsh, the largest in Pennsylvania.