The H.J. Heinz Co., at risk of being pelted with rotten tomatoes by contestants shut out of the company's 30-second consumer-generated commercial competition, plans to give them a second chance by launching another TopThisTV.com contest in October.

In a decision made late yesterday, the Pittsburgh ketchup company said it would offer a second $57,000 grand prize and the promise of national TV exposure to those who want another shot or who never got around to turning their ideas for celebrating Heinz ketchup into videos.

"We know there are many more ads out there," said Tracey Parsons, associate manager for marketing and public relations at Heinz North America. She said the response to the contest launched in April far exceeded the company's expectations.

In fact, nearly half of the videos posted on YouTube.com didn't get a chance at the prize for various reasons. The company said 8,000 videos were posted, 6,000 were submitted properly to be considered for the contest, while 4,000 of those were deemed acceptable based on issues such as length and copyright considerations.

The company plans to post the 15 semifinalists' entries on Aug. 27 so viewers can vote for their favorites. The big winner will be aired Sept. 16 during the Emmy awards.

In the past couple of days, a growing chorus of complaints began showing up on message boards from consumers who felt they'd been blocked out. Some said they didn't discover until too late that they had missed some steps in the submission process.

A discussion group launched at www.youtube.com/group/topourselves to share video and commentary was introduced with this description: "This is a group for those of us left out of the Heinz TopThisTV contest for one unknown reason or another," with the author going on to say, "Yes! We feel bad for ourselves."

The group had 52 members by late yesterday.

Ms. Parsons defended the company's first contest, saying the process used was similar to those used in programs offered by other companies. "Thousands of people did complete it successfully," she said.

All summer, she said, people have asked if Heinz would do more contests. Many wrote letters with their ideas but said they couldn't get the commercials made. That included a man in prison, she said. "Maybe he'll have a chance to get to a computer this time around."