Heinz is bringing to real life the 'Pass the Heinz' campaign Don Draper pitched on 'Mad Men.' Credit: Kraft Heinz 
 
 Don Draper's ketchup-less pitch for Heinz was rejected by the marketer's fictional team on "Mad Men," but now the real-life Heinz team is embracing the idea. 
 
 Creative agency David is taking only some of the credit for its newest Heinz campaign, which includes three New York billboards and ads in two print publications. The ads are nearly identical recreations of ads Mr. Draper, played by Jon Hamm, showed the client during a 2013 episode of the AMC series. 
 
 The simplistic-looking ads feature French fries, steak or a cheeseburger below the line "Pass the HEINZ." In the real-life version breaking this week, the line is written "Pass the Heinz." in a slightly different font, while other elements are nearly identical. 
 
 All three print ads will be featured in the New York Post and the fries version is set to appear in Variety. Credit: Kraft Heinz 
 
 "We were having a couple of old-fashioned cocktails with Don Draper and he just gave us the files," joked Anselmo Ramos, chief creative officer and founder at David. 
 
 "What we love about it is that even though Don Draper created the 'Pass the Heinz' campaign almost 50 years ago, the communication still really works and resonates today," said Nicole Kulwicki, head of the Heinz brand at Kraft Heinz. 
 
 As in the show, which aired only four years ago (not 50), the ads do not feature ketchup on the food or a bottle of the leading ketchup brand. As Mr. Draper said during his pitch on the show, "It's Heinz. It only means one thing." 
 
 "The creative execution itself and what we love about it is that it really doesn't require paragraphs of copy to explain it," said Ms. Kulwicki. "Really all that's missing is the Heinz." 
 
 The David team rewatched the episode and felt the campaign would resonate today, Mr. Ramos said. 
 
 "This is just perfectly on brand," Mr. Ramos said of the campaign, which was not approved by the fictional team during the fictional show. "We finally managed to approve it." 
 
 In fact, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and David share creative credits on the campaign in the creative public relations effort around the project. 
 
 Heinz is bringing the creative work to life with billboards at 7th Ave at 49th Street, 10th Ave. and 29th St. near the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel and at 23rd St. and the Highline. All three print ads will be featured in the New York Post and the fries version is set to appear in Variety. The campaign will also play on social media. 
 
 Heinz will also tout the campaign on billboards in New York. Credit: Kraft Heinz 
 
 Heinz did not work on a product integration with the "Mad Men" team when the plot aired on the show. It did work with Lionsgate on using the campaign from the show in real life now, Ms. Kulwicki said. 
 
 This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the premiere of "Mad Men," while the episode the campaign relates to first aired in April 2013. Neither Ms. Kulwicki nor Mr. Ramos were working on the Heinz business when the episode aired, but both proclaimed to be "Mad Men" fans. 
 
 "The idea is timeless," Ms. Kulwicki said. 

 It was a compelling idea, even if the client wasn’t convinced at the time. 
 
 Fifty years ago, in the fictional world of Mad Men, Don Draper pitched a daring ad campaign to Heinz execs, for the brand’s ketchup, that proposed not showing the product at all. Instead, the ads would show close-ups of foods that go great with ketchup—french fries, a cheeseburger, a slice of steak—but without any ketchup in sight. 
 
 Don’s proposed tagline: “Pass the Heinz.” 
 
 The campaign’s “Got Milk?”-like strategy of creating a craving for a product through its absence was apparently too far ahead of its time. Don didn’t get the account. (Nor, for that matter, did Peggy Olson, who, pitching for a competing agency, presented a much more product-centric campaign right after Don.) 
 
 But now, in 2017, the time for “Pass the Heinz” has come. 
 
 In a meta union of advertising’s real and fictional worlds, Heinz just greenlighted the ads—and will run them almost exactly as Draper intended, beginning today, in print and out-of-home executions in New York City. 
 
 Partly a PR stunt, partly just solid on-brand communications, the campaign is sure to delight fans of the AMC show, which in July will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its premiere. And in a nice touch, the ads are officially being credited to Heinz’s current agency, David Miami, and to Don’s fictional 1960s firm, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. (Draper and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, who approved the idea, are both listed in the credits.) 
 
 Below are the three ads that are running. 
 
 Heinz tells AdFreak that each one will get its own billboard in NYC. All three ads will also run in the New York Post, and the fries execution will run in Variety too. The ads will get support across Heinz’s social media channels as well. 
 
 Nicole Kulwicki, head of the Heinz brand, told AdFreak the timing was right to finally approve an idea that was presented (but not really) so many decades ago. 
 
 “Even though Don Draper created the ‘Pass the Heinz’ campaign almost 50 years ago, the communications still really work in today’s world,” she said. “Mr. Draper really understood the one thing every Heinz fan knows, which is to never settle for the foods you love without the great taste of Heinz. What we loved about the campaign is that it doesn’t require paragraphs of copy to explain it. It features mouthwatering food images, and all that’s missing is the Heinz.” 
 
 Anselmo Ramos, chief creative officer of David, joked that he met with Draper recently (it’s good to hear Don is still with us—at what would be 91 years old). “We had a couple of Old Fashioneds,” Ramos said, “and he gave me the mechanicals from the original campaign.” 
 
 In truth, David had to re-create the images from scratch. “We didn’t have the files, so we had to do a photo shoot,” Ramos said. “It needed to look exactly the same, and that was a beautiful challenge.” 
 
 Like Kulwicki, Ramos believes the concept really isn’t dated at all. 
 
 “It’s so simple,” he said. “Don did a great job. This is just 100 percent on-brand positioning. It is about never settling. You look at these beautiful shots of empty fries, or a burger, and there’s something missing. And when you say ‘Pass the Heinz,’ that’s all you need to say. You don’t need to show the product.” 
 
 "Don did a great job. You look at these beautiful shots of empty fries, or a burger, and there's something missing. You don't need to show the product." Anselmo Ramos, CCO at David 
 
 In the Mad Men episode, “To Have and to Hold” (from season 6, which aired in 2013), the Heinz clients balk, clearly uncomfortable with Don’s unconventional idea, with one of them calling it “half an ad.” “They even said, ‘I want to see the bottle. I want to see the product,'” Ramos said. “And Don says, well, you don’t need to show the product, because the consumer will complete the thought. The product will be in their imagination, which is even more powerful.” 
 
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– Don Draper just landed a big account at the ripe old age of 91, as Heinz has decided that the fictional version of itself depicted in a 2013 Mad Men episode made a judgment error in rejecting his 1960s ketchup idea. Draper's pitch—the burger, the fries, the steak, all without the ketchup—famously uses the glaring absence of its own product to sell the product. It's "almost like reverse product placement," Anselmo Ramos, the chief creative officer and founder of David, tells Adweek. And Heinz has decided it loves the pitch—so David, a real ad agency, will share creative credits with Mad Men's fictional Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. "It’s so simple," Ramos says. "Don did a great job." Ramos says the creatives are "happy to see their names next to Don Draper and Matt Weiner," and adds, "We finally managed to approve it." In fact the agency tried to perfectly recreate the fictional ad, though what first said "Pass the HEINZ" now reads "Pass the Heinz," notes Advertising Age. The ads, which as Draper envisioned do not even use the word "ketchup" but simply "Heinz," will appear on billboards in New York, print ads in the New York Post and Variety, and across social media. Brilliant though it may seem, Eater doesn't think the fictional agency's other ideas are current enough to adapt to real life. The Heinz ad, though, is "timeless," per a Heinz brand exec. (Heinz and Kraft merged into one of the world's biggest food companies.)