Heinz Wants to Give Rescued Man a New Boat, But Has to Find Him First

A man who was lost at sea for 24 days—surviving on only ketchup, spices and rainwater—has proven to be elusive now that he’s back on dry land.

And Kraft-Heinz is asking for help in locating Elvis Francois, who made international news last month when he was rescued 120 nautical miles off Colombia.

The legacy brand, fresh off a clever Super Bowl stunt, wants to give him a new state-of-the-art boat so he never has to go through a harrowing ordeal like that again. But attempts to get in touch have failed.

“We even reached out to the Colombia Navy, who found him at sea, and Dominica Immigration services, but no luck,” the brand said in a statement. “Now, we’re taking our search to the masses.”

Heinz has launched “#FindTheKetchupBoatGuy” “hoping to spread the word far and wide” and posted a virtual message in a bottle on Instagram. Heinz markets around the world are expected to be involved in the program.

Looking for any credible leads to the 47-year-old man’s whereabouts, Heinz wants to “reward him with a new boat equipped with full navigational technology to avoid another disaster in the future.”

Casting a wide net

According to news reports, Francois had been repairing his sailboat near St. Maarten in the Antilles islands in December when currents swept him out to sea. From there, he faced one disaster after another: He tried to get back to port, but by the time he fixed and mounted his sail, he was lost and disoriented, he told his rescuers.

Francois’ ship-to-shore service failed him, so he couldn’t contact anyone, and his boat was leaking so he had to bail water constantly. He tried to light a fire and send a distress signal, without success. Unprepared for a journey, he had no food on board.

“It was just a bottle of ketchup that was on the boat, garlic powder and Maggi (stock cubes) so I mixed it up with some water,” Francois said in a video provided by the Colombian army.

He spelled out HELP on the hull of the boat and signaled a passing plane with a mirror. He was eventually saved by a container ship that took him to Cartagena, per news reports. Healthy but exhausted, he was scheduled to return to his home in Dominica.

Since then, he’s been scarce, per Heinz, which is hoping someone will come forward with information via DM.

Heinz is “setting this message adrift into the sea of the internet, because if anyone can help us find him, it’s you,” per the brand’s open letter, crafted by in-house division The Kitchen.

By the way, there’s no word on the brand of ketchup that Francois sustained himself with, but Heinz is not splitting hairs on that detail.