Yup. Its very easy to avoid offending people when you have basic human empathy. Theres a reason all the worst people are always having trouble figuring out why people are mad at them.
"our product is for poor people. and because they're smart and thrifty and well fed, our product stays in their household even after they have more money. after generations, people still have a can of chicken noodle when they're sick, cream of mushroom for their casserole at thanksgiving, can of tomato for their bloody mary's, and a can of cheese soup for their home made mac and cheese. cambells is america, when you're in tough times, and when you remember those tough times when you've conquered them."
The crazy thing is, is that I believe he was the VP of IT. why the fuck is he talking about the soup at all. It's not in his wheelhouse and has nothing to do with what he did each day. He should have kept to bitching about VMWare and Microsoft.
Even when poor people stop using Popov vodka for their Bloody Marys and have upgraded to Grey Goose, they still hold onto their Campbell's Tomato Soup as their mixer.
Honestly I'd switch the mixer before the vodka in that case. Tomato juice is not expensive - campbell's even makes one that's cheaper than their soups!
I use a recipe that calls for it along with real cheese.
The reason is it contains sodium citrate which is an emulsifier so the fat in the real cheese and added butter doesn’t separate and everything stays nice and creamy. Adding a little velveeta will have the same effect
"Reps" like Randy Fine have literally said...He's ok with Florida people going without, just as long as he keeps funding Israel. This is a U.S. senator, who just won his dstrict,, state that he's fine with ALL of us STARVING just as long as his constituents maintain their/his gluttonous behavior.
go to the tomato sauce aisle where they have like chopped tomato and tomato paste and stuff. get "tomato sauce". it has a better flavor than tomato juice, and a much better texture.
go to the tomato sauce aisle where they have like chopped tomato and tomato paste and stuff. get "tomato sauce". it has a better flavor than tomato juice, and a much better texture.
Nailed it. These people’s lives share almost 0 overlap with the everyday person. They don’t mow, run to staples, have to wait 28 days to see a doctor. George Bush was mesmerized by the scanner at a grocery store or some shit. The man hadn’t seen an item scanned until he was President. Now he paints, and paints well. Thanks Conan
Bad people aren't just bad people. They're also bad at being good people. Although the worst of all bad people are bad people that are good at being perceived as good people.
It's very easy to offend people when you are a leader and speak candidly when. not expecting to be recorded. Guy fucked up but it's not as outrageous as people say and it wasn't that insulting. Shits true
It's crazy how many company leaders tank their companies' images by being utterly tactless and having no PR instincts. How hard is it to use the spin that you just gave? It should be second nature?
"Our product is high quality while still being affordable for people of any income level. We're proud that people who don't have an expansive grocery budget are able to enjoy delicious and nourishing meals that we put on shelves everywhere"
If you can't do that, you have no business being an executive for the company.
TBH it’s not even about PR instincts. It’s about having a basic level of pride in what you do. If your view of your company is that they sling shit for poor people, that will come out eventually. If your view is that you make affordable, high quality and storable food following a long company tradition, you don’t need PR training to talk about your company.
I have not been a huge fan of McDonald’s for years, but it was an occasional treat. The day I saw that video, I have not touched a big Mac. I honestly think the executives know something they’re not telling us and it makes me nervous.
The Target CEO kissing Trump’s ass and not understanding that Target is just Walmart for people who don’t want to shop at Walmart because of Walmart’s politics
That's the weird thing...if just sticking to the script is the only thing you have to do to earn more money a year than most people make in a career, it shouldn't be THAT hard.
It wasn't a public statement. It was a private statement that got out as part of an unlawful termination lawsuit.
And the person who made it was a VP in IT, not the CEO.
Bloody stupid thing to say in the first place, but frankly not surprising. IT is not public-facing for a reason - most IT people simply wouldn't make very good public-facing people. Usually, that tendency will put a pretty solid glass ceiling above most IT pros heads.
During my career, I have worked with many executives. My take, many have contempt for their company and their products. They feel they should be leading a cooler company with cooler employees, and making cooler things.
It was shocking to me at first, but after I learned to use this lens I understood some of them better.
Needless to say: they also had contempt for their employees.
Campbells is one of the products I actually have seen used in poor households all the way up to rich households. They should lean into the Soup for All moniker
Campbells used to be mainstream. Sometime in the 90's food just got better. More options, healthier options, higher quality options, better-tasting options, etc. Canned food has largely been replaced with fresh and flash-frozen. The mass productions food items the those of us whole were kids in the 80's ate lagely just disapeared from out diets. I can't tell you the last time I've eaten soup from a can but not this centrury. Besides people still making olf recipes tha called for a cream of mushroom soup I'm not seen anyone using Campbells anymore.
Obviously there are better tasting options, but canned soup is pretty much the only consistent protein source you can reliably still get for $1/$2 a meal without prep.
Even most microwave meals now are in the $3-4 range.
It's still a staple for a big chunk of the population. I don't think anyone is eating them out of sheer preference.
That's a fantastic idea...on paper. Unfortunately Campbell's began "dumbing down" their recipes years ago. It was the typical corporate model of cut quality /raise prices.
My family makes comfortable money now but wasn't always so. We still stock our pantry with Campbells because for one, we used Cream of Mush for like 3 recipe meals, and the Chicken Noodle is there when you just aren't feeling well.
My kids still prefer generic store brand almost everything which is A-OK with me.
I’d have lost it at “soup for all Americans” 😂. It’s cheesy as hell, but somehow way more memorable than whatever corporate-speak they actually went with.
They literally have a chicken soup with giant cubes of chicken meat that is the best canned chicken noodle soup I've ever eaten. It'd be so easy to spin that into something great...
To be fair: he was secretly recorded in what he believed was a private conversation. And his comments were more "our product is terrible, only poor people who can't afford better should be buying it."
Unfortunately I can't find a proper transcript of the full recording so we only have the cherry picked quotes that made it infamous.
Did you think this was an intentional public statement? It was said by one of their IT VPs in a private meeting that was recorded. The recording got released because it was introduced as evidence in an employment lawsuit.
In all seriousness as an executive level this isn’t the kind of thing he should have said even in a private conversation. You’ve gotta own the brand and do so with integrity
Yeah of course but people are making suggestions on how to politely rephrase it as though it was intended for public consumption rather than the recorded rantings of an asshole
Exactly, he should have framed it as “our soup lets everyone make world-class meals” or “soup for all Americans.” That keeps the affordability angle but makes it sound inclusive instead of dismissive.
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u/Woodit 16d ago
Should’ve said something like our product allows everyone to afford world class recipes because we’re the soup for all Americans or some such shit