Souping Up The Sales Pitch

The average American household stores six to eight cans of soup in its cupboard. The problem is getting people to dust the cans off and use them.

Campbell Soup Co. has dusted off what may be the most famous product slogan of all time and brought it up to date for the ‘90s. “M’m! M’m! Good!,” first used in the 1930s, has been recast as “M’m! M’m! Better!”

Two years ago, the 126-year old Camden, New Jersey-based soupmaker launched a very un-Campbell-like advertising campaign —more sexpot than soup pot. A fetching femme in a sleek red dress sashayed down a white corridor (the soup’s colors) to pitch the company’s low-calorie, low-fat soups.

The ads were “a long way from the Campbell Kids,” said Marty Thrasher, president of Campbell’s U.S. soup division. “We needed to make soup more relevant for the ‘90s — to jolt people,” he said.

M’m! M’m! Better! capitalizes on the soup’s heritage he said.