When Daniel Korell scanned a QR code on a bottle of Heinz Ketchup, he got more than he bargained for. Rather than bring up the competition page he was expecting to see, it instead linked to a German porn site called Fundorado. Oops.
According to The Local, the reason it happened isn’t because of hijinks in the Heinz factory, but because the domain name that the company had registered for the contest expired in 2014; Fundorado had since snapped it up and therefore was directing unsuspecting ketchup consumers it to its own sex-video website.
After complaining about the error on Facebook, Heinz apparently responded saying rather robotically “we really regret the event very much and we’re happy to take your suggestions for how we implement future campaigns on board”. To make it up to Daniel, the company has apparently offered him the chance to design his own ketchup bottle and have it printed, which was the original contest.
As for the rest of us, the lesson here is plain: it’s probably best to keep ignoring QR codes.
Picture: birgit/Flickr
This post originally appeared on Gizmodo UK, which is gobbling up the news in a different timezone.