What on earth is "Fancy Ketchup" all about?

On the weekend we took the kids to Maccas (for those of you in the US, thats an Aussie term for McDonalds). As we're eating I notice something on the ketchup....

Fancy Ketchup? Whats that all about? This actually gets me a little curious to what defines "fancy" so this morning I decided to have a little look around. Oddly theres commentary from a site called KetchupWorld where you can ask the KetchupMan all your burning questions on the joys of ketchup. His commentary?

Qtn: "Dear Ketchupman, What's the meaning of "fancy" ketchup? What's so fancy about it? Bryan H."
Ans: "By its nature, ketchup is synonymous with fancy. That is why the expression "Black Tie and Ketchup" means a fancy occasion. That is why the expression "She caught my ketchup" means "Caught my fancy." And last, "Fancy Smancy" means the same as "Ketchup Smetchup." Ketchup is always fancy."

Hmm. That surely cant be it. I search more.

The all seeing, Google Answers offers this rationale which basically says its a marketing ploy. Ask Yahoo offers roughly the same.The more I searched the more I found a pretty healthy debate on what it actually means. Theres tons of sites offering their opinion...though most seem to be resigned to the opinion that its a marketing ploy. All say that the ingredients are the same - which is pretty much true I guess.

Aside from KetchupMan, not one has offered a definitive explanation on where it came from and why it exists. Its just one of those mysteries I guess....c'mon surely someone knows for sure??

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 22, 2008
  I think that you should release a "Fancy" edition of the AGPM tool ;-)