Campbell's Soup Ads Analysis

Kicking the Can… “I like food. I like eating. And I don't want to deprive myself of good food.” - Sarah Michelle Gellar
The best way to satisfy hunger is to eat a nutritious, fulfilling meal at either breakfast, lunch or dinner. For a man (or woman) who just came back from a hard day’s of work, there is nothing more nourishing than a meaty broth. Since 1869, Campbell’s Soup Company has been around for quite some time. They happen to be well-known for their soup products. Going by the slogan “M'm! M'm! Good! ,” Campbell’s Soup Company is one of the many conglomerates whose marketing tactics changed with the course of time, as well as using beef, where the quality of meat eroded throughout the years as part of a plan the food industry created
The ad shows four women standing around a sign that says “For MEN Only.” They don what the average housewife wore during the 1940s –aprons. There is a play-on with diction under the sign stating ‘ “He-Man” is the word for these hearty soups! But, Ladies, you’ll like ‘em too!” A he-man is a robust chap, and what ways to best describe a product that is tiered originally towards men. The sentence that says “But, Ladies, you’ll like ‘em too!”, could mean that women find strong men irresistible. In the case of beef soup, womenfolk would love this product just as much as they love manly-men. The problem displayed within the ad is that they stigmatized women as being a hopeless bunch without a man to be there to guide them. They are circumscribed towards just being a housewife. There is a “gendered split between the public and private [spheres]” (Day 127). Tracing “back to the Industrial Revolution…men began to perform paid labor outside of the home and women continued to perform the unpaid family labor (Medved, 2007).” (127). This soon became “the product of hegemonic patriarchal power structures that privilege men’s work over women’s work (Fletcher, 1999)” (127) due to the “separation of domestic and professional spheres…” (127). Because of this, “Men’s paid labor has historically been valued more than women’s unpaid domestic labor,
Over the course of mankind, “meat has been closely associated with power and privilege—a staple for the gentry and a rare treat for the peasants” (Ruby, Heine 448). Linking back to Campbell’s 1940 beef soup advertisement, beef is illustrated as a “For MEN Only” diet. There is a possibility that the ad’s secret message conveys’ females as being vegans’ since “people’s perceptions of vegetarians found that women were more accepting of vegetarians than men (Walker, 1995)…” (447). Furthermore, “[women’s] attitudes toward vegetarians were predominantly positive, especially among those [that scored] low in authoritarianism (Chin, Fisak, & Sims, 2002), and that omnivores tend to rate vegetarians as good, but weak people (Monin & Minson, 2007).” (447). In other words, women and vegetarians are seen as inferior compared to those who eat meat – though this is seen a generalization/perception in society. On the other hand, vegetarians are also perceived as people that have “a stronger sense of virtue and morality in those who abstain from eating meat” (450), since they abide by “four principal reasons: concern for animal welfare, concern for the environment, concern for health, and disgust at the sensory qualities of meat (e.g. Fox & Ward, 2008; Santos & Booth, 1996; Worsley & Skrzypiec, 1998).” (447). For males,