Condiments – No, Really – Duke It Out in Online Video

Will ketchup overpower mustard for the win? Or will mayo slather them both? The food toppers are out to top each other, with Hellmann’s, French’s, and Heinz all running would-be viral video sites this summer. Seriously.

Heinz is currently holding a “Top This” challenge, soliciting ketchup ads uploaded to YouTube by August 6. The company got defensive in a recent New York Times profile, saying the campaign was costing at least as much as a normal commercial, when accounting for labor to filter inappropriate, off-topic, or derogatory submissions.

French’s mustard, on the other hand, is planning to extend its television ad campaign “Food Loves French’s” with a series of webisodes launching this Friday. In an interview earlier this week, French’s touted its conservative approach as compared with Heinz, incoporating user contributions only in the form of text.

And then today, the Wall Street Journal detailed Hellman’s mayonnaise’s new web video series to launch tomorrow on Yahoo Food.

Dubbed “In Search of Real Food,” the 12-week series stars Dave Lieberman, chef and the host of a popular Food Network television show. He will travel the country seeking out interesting recipes, and once each episode he will cook up a recipe — which in some cases will call for Hellmann’s.

Hellmann’s apparently settled for airing the series online when it couldn’t negotiated creative (err…) freedom from the Food Network.

The French’s minute-or-so-long webisode series kicks off with a hot dog speed-dating for the ideal condiment on Friday. French’s spokesperson Rafael Lampon said the video site will not enable users to embed its videos off-site. However, French’s employees will proatively upload the videos themselves to more flexible hosting sites, like YouTube. As for the user-generated content component, the company is asking for submissions of love stories about mustard.

Clearly, the online video space is getting crazy right about now, if the online video condiment space can be so competitive. But as much as I love web video, I think I’d rather have a barbeque. Uh-oh…was that the idea all along?