Campbell's

• 1. Introduction

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  A painting of a torn Campbell's soup can, titled Small Torn Campbell Soup Can (Pepper Pot), sold at auction in 2006 for $11.8 million. Andy Warhol made it in 1962. The subject was an ordinary can from a soup maker in Camden, New Jersey, a company now called The Campbell's Company. Nothing about a can of soup suggests a gallery wall. Yet its red-and-white design became an American icon. This documentary asks how a small canning partnership came to own that image. It asks who found a way to make soup compact, and who picked those colors. It asks how a soup maker became a collector of cookie, pretzel, salsa, and juice brands. And it asks what happened when the old factories closed and the public began to scrutinize what goes into the can.

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• 2. Condensed Beginnings

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  In 1869, a fruit merchant from Bridgeton, New Jersey, named Joseph A. Campbell went into business with Abraham Anderson, an icebox manufacturer from South Jersey. Their early products were canned tomatoes, vegetables, jellies, soups, condiments, and minced meats. Soup was one item among many.

  In 1876, Anderson left, and the firm became the Joseph A. Campbell Preserve Company. His son, Campbell Speelman, chose a different path from his father. He stayed on as a creative director and originally designed the soup cans.

  In 1894, Campbell retired, and Arthur Dorrance became company president. The firm reorganized in 1896 as Joseph Campbell & Co.

  The next year brought the hire that mattered most. John T. Dorrance, a nephew of the president, started work in 1897 at $7.50 a week, about $253 in 2022 dollars. He was a chemist with degrees from MIT and Göttingen University in Germany. He developed a commercially viable way to condense soup by halving the quantity of its heaviest ingredient, water.

  Dorrance rose to lead the company as president from 1914 to 1930. Over time he bought out the Campbell family entirely.

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• 3. Red and White Branding

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  In 1898, a Campbell's executive named Herberton Williams was taken by the crisp carnelian red of the Cornell University football team's uniforms. He convinced the company to adopt a carnelian red and bright white color scheme. The can also carries a metallic bronze medal seal from the 1900 Paris Exhibition. The layout has changed very little since. One edit stands out. The French phrase "Exposition-Universelle-Internationale" on the seal became the English "Paris International Exposition."

  The company has invested heavily in advertising since its early years. Artifacts from its promotional campaigns now fetch money in the market for collectible Americana. Perhaps best known are the Campbell's Kids, designed by illustrator Grace Drayton. Ronald Reagan served as a spokesman for V8 after Campbell's acquired that brand in 1948.

  Slogans trace the company's changing voice. "Mmm Mmm Good" arrived in 1935 and remains the most used. "Give Me The Campbell Life" ran from 1969 to 1975, followed by "Soup Is Good Food" until around 1982. The 1990s brought "Never underestimate the power of soup!" and "Possibilities" ran from 2005 to 2009. "It's Amazing What Soup Can Do!" began in 2010, and "Made for real, Real life" in 2015.

  Sponsorship reached the airwaves too. Orson Welles's radio theater program had been The Mercury Theatre on the Air. Its War of the Worlds adaptation became a sensation after it accidentally started a mass panic because it sounded so real. Campbell's took over as sponsor in December 1938, and the show became The Campbell Playhouse.

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• 4. Warhol's Cans

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  Thirty-two canvases made up the first batch of Warhol's soup can series. At first, the cans were accurate representations of real Campbell's cans. As the series progressed, they grew more surrealistic.

  Warhol experimented with negative-reversed color schemes and other varied techniques. Many of these methods also appeared in other paintings of the period, such as his celebrity silkscreens of the 1960s.

  The silkscreens themselves became iconic pieces of pop art. Warhol did not treat the soup can as a one-time joke. He returned to the theme off and on through the 1960s and 1970s.

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• 5. Building an Empire

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  William Beverly Murphy was elected executive vice president of Campbell Soup in 1949. He served as president and CEO from 1953 to 1972. Under his leadership, the company became one of the largest food companies in the world. He took the corporation public and widened its brand portfolio. It came to include Pepperidge Farm breads, cookies, and crackers, Franco-American gravies and pastas, V8 vegetable juices, Swanson broths, and Godiva chocolates.

  Pepperidge Farm, an American baked-goods company founded in 1937, was acquired by Campbell's in 1961. Swanson now covers broth, canned chicken, and TV dinners and frozen meals, which Pinnacle Foods makes under license. Prego supplies pasta sauces.

  During the 1970s and 1980s, Campbell's also entered the restaurant business. It acquired Pietro's Pizza, Annabelle's, Clark, and Herfy's, and launched Hanover Trail and H.T. McDoogal's.

  David Johnson was president and CEO from 1990 until 1997. In 1995, five years into his tenure, Campbell's acquired Pace Foods, an American salsa company founded in 1947.

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• 6. Closing the Plants

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  On the night of the 1st of March 1991, production ended at Campbell's original plant in Camden, New Jersey, known as plant No. 1. The closure had been announced in 1989. The plant was officially closed the next day and demolished on the 1st of November 1991. Plants in Pocomoke City, Maryland, Crisfield, Maryland, and Smyrna, Tennessee shut down around the same time.

  The closures cost 2,800 jobs, around 1,000 of them in Camden. Workers received one week's payment for each year of employment, plus six months of paid medical benefits and half the cost of six more months. Production moved to plants in Napoleon, Ohio, Paris, Texas, and Maxton, North Carolina.

  Plant No. 2 had closed earlier, in 1980. It began as a tomato-processing plant, and in the 1950s it produced about 35 percent of all Campbell's products. Its output included pork and beans, tomato juice, V8, Franco-American spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, and soups such as bean with bacon and cream of mushroom.

  The pattern continued abroad and in Canada. The King's Lynn plant in the United Kingdom opened in 1959 and closed in 2007, and the site was demolished in 2012. In 2013, the company left the European market. The Lübeck plant in Germany was sold to CVC Capital Partners and converted into Continental Foods BVBA. Plants in Ribe and Nørre Snede in Denmark also went.

  In January 2018, Campbell's announced the closure of its only Canadian factory, in Toronto, which had opened in 1930 in New Toronto, Ontario. Production shifted to three existing facilities in the United States, and 380 jobs were lost.

  Camden remained the company's home. Campbell's regularly takes part in charity events in the city, and in 2009 it finished building a new, expanded headquarters there.

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• 7. The Dealmaking Years

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  In 2006, Premier Foods, based in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, bought Campbell's business in the United Kingdom and Ireland for £450 million ($830 million). It was licensed to use the Campbell name only until 2008. In March 2008, the soup became Batchelors Condensed Soup in the UK and Erin in Ireland. In July 2011, Campbell's returned to the UK, with Symingtons making the brand under license. The new range of twelve cup soups, five simmer soups, four savory rice lines, and four pasta and sauce packets came in packets and boxes rather than cans. Later in 2011, canned varieties returned with refreshed labels.

  Meanwhile, the portfolio kept changing. In November 2007, Campbell's sold Godiva to Yildiz Holding. In 2012, it announced plans to buy Bolthouse Farms, a maker of juices, salad dressings, and baby carrots, for $1.55 billion. Analysts said the aim was to reach younger, more affluent consumers. In June 2013, it acquired Denmark's Kelsen Group, whose 85-country distribution network offered a route into China and other Asian markets.

  The June 2015 purchase of salsa maker Garden Fresh Gourmet cost $231 million. In December 2017, Campbell's completed its $700 million acquisition of Pacific Foods of Oregon. It also agreed to buy snack company Snyder's-Lance for $4.87 billion in cash, the largest deal in its history. That deal brought Lance crackers and cookies, Snyder's of Hanover pretzels, Cape Cod Potato Chips, Kettle potato chips, Snack Factory pretzel chips, Archway Cookies, and an 80 percent stake in Late July Snacks.

  In July 2019, Campbell's agreed to sell its Kelsen stake to a Ferrero subsidiary for $300 million. At the same time, it sold Arnott's Biscuits to KKR for $2.2 billion. That year, a trademark on "Chunky" was approved, after Chunky soup sold over $450 million a year from 2004 to 2017. In August 2023, Campbell's acquired Sovos Brands, headquartered in Louisville, Colorado, for $2.7 billion.

  In August 2024, it moved its stock listing from the NYSE to the Nasdaq Global Select Market, with trading on Nasdaq beginning on the 19th of August. On the 26th of August, it completed the sale of its Pop Secret popcorn business to Our Home. On the 11th of September 2024, it announced a name change to The Campbell's Company, approved on the 19th of November.

  Leadership turned over along the way. Denise Morrison served as president and CEO from 2011 through 2018. Mark Clouse, formerly CEO of Pinnacle Foods, took over in January 2019, and later retired to become team president of the NFL's Washington Commanders. Mick Beekhuizen succeeded him on the 1st of February 2025.

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• 8. Under Scrutiny

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  In the fall of 2007, Campbell's received a Certificate of Excellence from Blood Pressure Canada for lowering sodium levels. Canned soups, including condensed and chunky varieties, contain relatively high sodium. By the fall of 2009, the company said it had cut sodium in 50 percent of its soups. In March 2010, ABC News reported that the low-sodium variety held the same sodium as the regular one, and that Healthy Request soup had more fat. In July 2011, citing sinking sales, Campbell's raised the salt content of its products again.

  In December 2009, Consumer Reports found that major canned food companies, including Campbell's, were making products with bisphenol A levels over 100 ppb in some cases. One serving could exceed an expert's recommended daily exposure of 0.2 micrograms per kilogram of body weight.

  During 2012, Campbell's contributed $500,000 to a $46 million campaign against Proposition 37, a California initiative to require labels on foods with genetically modified ingredients. In January 2016, the company reversed course, supporting mandatory labeling. That month it also pledged to source 100 percent cage-free eggs by 2025.

  In January 2010, Campbell's Canadian subsidiary began selling soups certified halal by the Islamic Society of North America. The move drew criticism from anti-Muslim critics in the United States, and some bloggers called for a boycott. Spokesman John Faulkner said the company noticed no effect on sales.

  Recalls added to the record. On the 22nd of June 2010, SpaghettiOs and Meatballs was recalled after a Texas firm found possible traces of under processed meat. On the 22nd of April 2017, 4,185 pounds of Homestyle Healthy Request Chicken with Whole Grain Pasta were recalled for failing to declare milk on the label.

  In September 2025, Campbell's admitted to multiple Clean Water Act violations. Its Napoleon, Ohio canning plant dumped millions of gallons of waste into the Maumee River, which feeds Lake Erie, over six and a half years. In November 2025, former cybersecurity analyst Robert Garza filed a lawsuit alleging he was fired after complaining about racist comments by executive Martin Bally at a meeting in November 2024. Later that month, the company dismissed Bally.

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