Campbell dropping ‘soup’ from name after over 100 years

The iconic Campbell's soup immortalized by the father of pop art, Andy Warhol, changes its name: after 155 years it will no longer be called "soup", but why? The company changed its nomenclature to become The Campbell Company because the term "soup" was actually present in the official wording of the company which until a few days ago was called Campbell Soup Company. The can, which became famous because it was included in a series of silk-screen prints by the American artist, is a true icon but the company decided to change its name to better reflect "at the same time the entire breadth of the company portfolio" according to the CEO, Mark Clouse . Indeed, today the company not only produces canned soups and preserves but also has many snack brands such as Goldfish, Snyder's of Hanover, Cape Cod, Pepperidge Farm. The most recent acquisition is of a tomato canning company, Rao's, for as much as 2.7 billion dollars. It is therefore superfluous to still keep the "soup" in the official name of the company.

A pop culture icon in a jar

Campbell's sales are inextricably linked to Andy Warhol. Many people worldwide have bought a can just for the artwork and not to actually taste the canned soup. At the moment, the consumption of soup is in sharp decline because people are increasingly attentive to nutrition and the freshness of food, but the share of the snacks market by the other brands of the group is increasingly greater. It was therefore a necessary repositioning.

Why is Campbell so famous?

The Campbell Soup Company, founded in 1869, is one of the most recognized brands in the US food industry, best known for its canned soups. Campbell's initial success was due to its ability to make soup, an everyday staple, accessible and affordable to a wide customers, thanks to the introduction of canned condensed soup in 1897. This product became iconic in the United States, associated with idea of ​​comfort food and practicality. The red and white can with the Campbell logo has become a symbol easily recognized by millions of people.

The link between Campbell and pop art was born in the 1960s, with the figure of Andy Warhol, one of the most influential artists of that period. Pop art is an artistic movement that takes inspiration from mass culture, commercial products and advertising, examining the relationship between art, consumption and media. The artists of this movement sought to challenge the traditional distinctions between "high art" and "popular art" by reproducing images of everyday and widely consumed objects. Warhol, attracted by mass culture and industrial products, chose the image of Campbell's soup as the subject of his series of works. In 1962, Warhol first presented his series of silkscreen prints entitled "Campbell's Soup Cans", consisting of 32 canvases each representing a different type of Campbell's Soup. Each canvas depicted the iconic image of the can, repeated in a serial and uniform way. Warhol's use of Campbell's soup cans perfectly reflected the Pop Art aesthetic, but was also a critique and celebration of consumer culture and mechanical reproduction. Warhol was fascinated by the fact that common products, such as a can of soup, could become elements of people's daily lives, endlessly repeated and universally recognized.