Campbell's Soup

For more than a century, the Campbell Soup Company has helped revolutionize eating habits around the world by offering a line of convenient, inexpensive canned "condensed soups." All consumers need do is add a can of water to the soup before heating it. Based in Camden, New Jersey, the firm was an outgrowth of the Joseph A. Campbell Preserve Company. The company had been started in 1869 by Joseph A. Campbell (1817–1900), a fruit merchant, and Abraham Anderson, a manufacturer of iceboxes. In 1897, the fortunes of the company changed. General manager Arthur Dorrance reluctantly hired his nephew, Dr. John T. Dorrance (1873–1930), a twenty-four-year-old chemist. John Dorrance invented a process for making the condensed soup by eliminating water from the cans, thus reducing the costs for packing, shipping, and storage. Dorrance's breakthrough allowed the company to reduce the price of a can of soup from thirty cents to a dime. The company introduced its soups on the national market in 1912 and officially changed its name to the Campbell Soup Company in 1922.

Twenty-one flavors, including the perennial favorites, tomato and vegetable, were promoted in the company's first magazine ads in the early 1900s. Chicken noodle and cream-of-mushroom varieties made their debut in 1934. Others were added over the years. The Campbell Kids, a pair of rosy-cheeked cartoon characters, began appearing in ads in 1904. In the 1990s, the Campbell Kids were still promoting the soups by dancing to rap songs in television commercials. Campbell's familiar jingle—"M'm! M'm! Good! M'm! M'm! Good! That's what Campbell's soups are! M'm! M'm! Good!"—was first heard in radio (see entry under 1920s—TV and Radio in volume 2) commercials in the 1930s. Generations of Americans were introduced to Campbell's products via celebrity endorsements and through its sponsorship of the Campbell Playhouse on radio and Lassie (see entry under 1940s—Film and Theater in volume 3) and Peter Pan on television (see entry under 1940s—TV and Radio in volume 3).

The familiar Campbell's soup can was inspired by the redand-white uniforms of the Cornell University football team that had impressed a company executive with their brilliance and visibility. In the 1960s, pop artist Andy Warhol (1928?–1987) transformed the image into an icon by creating paintings and screenprint editions featuring the cans.

In the latter decades of the twentieth century, Campbell's added several new lines of soup products. The new products included the Chunky line, a heartier soup that needed no water added, and a line of Healthy Request soups with less sodium, cholesterol, fat, and calories. Campbell's is also the parent company of other familiar brand names such as Pepperidge Farm, V8, Franco-American, Prego, Swanson, and Godiva chocolates. In 2001, the company reported net worldwide sales of $6.664 billion and controlled nearly 80 percent of the U.S. soup market.

—Edward Moran

For More Information

"Campbell History." Campbell's Community.http://www.campbellsoup.com (accessed January 16, 2002).

Parkin, Katherine. "Campbell's Soup and the Long Shelf Life of Traditional Gender Roles." In Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race. Edited by Sherrie A. Inness. Phladelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.

World's Greatest Brands: An International Review. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1992.