Bosses at Campbell’s Soup Company are planning to drop the word soup from the brand’s name for the first time in 155 years.
The company – whose soup cans were made famous by Andy Warhol’s iconic 60’s pop art piece – says the change aims to better reflect their growing product line.
While canned soup remains a key part of the Campbell’s business, it now also produces sauces, snacks and beverages as it adapts to a changing market.
It has also acquired other businesses such as Rao’s sauces maker Sovos Brands and has added other offerings such as Goldfish crackers, Cape Cod crisps, V8 beverages and Prego sauces to its portfolio.
Chief executive Mark Clouse said: ‘We will always love soup, and we’ll never take our eye off of this critical business. But today, we’re so much more than soup.’
The soup product served as an inspiration for Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans artwork – which was produced between November 1961 and June 1962
The piece became incredibly popular and led Warhol (pictured) to become the most-renowned American pop-art artist
Mr Clouse said Campbell will only need its soup sales to remain stable in the next few years for the company to meet its financial targets.
But other executives believe soup sales are set to benefit from an aging population in the US, as older people are more likely to eat soup.
Net sales are estimated by the company to rise between 9% and 11% in 2025 and investors are set to vote on the name change at an annual meeting in November.
The soup product served as an inspiration for Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans artwork – which was produced between November 1961 and June 1962
By the beginning of the 1960s, the American artist was seeking to break into the high culture art world as opposed to the commercial one he had been making a living in, but was having trouble finding the proper inspiration.
His breakthrough would come from a conversation with Muriel Latow, a minor New York art dealer who went to a dinner party at Warhol’s house in the fall of 1961, when he was lamenting being surpassed by other pop art pioneers Claes Oldenburg and Roy Lichtenstein.
I’ve got to do something that really will have a lot of impact, that will be different enough from Lichtenstein,’ he is supposed to have told her, and asked his guests for ideas.
As the legend goes, Latow asked Warhol to hand over a check for $50 before telling him hers.
The paintings would be Warhol’s breakthrough as a pop artist after he spend years designing window dressings
The legend goes that New York art dealer Roberta Latow was the person who gave Warhol the idea for his Campbell’s soup
‘You’ve got to find something that’s recognizable to almost everybody,’ she told him. ‘Something you see every day that everybody would recognize. Something like a can of Campbell’s Soup.’
The next day Warhol, or his mother, as other versions of the story tell it, ran to a supermarket across the street and purchased every variety of the soup it had in stock.
The work was first shown on July 9, 1962, in Warhol’s first one-man gallery exhibition at the Ferus Gallery of Los Angeles, California.
The piece became incredibly popular and led Warhol to become the most-renowned American pop-art artist.
Just one of Warhol’s soup cans from 1962 was sold in 2010 for more than $9 million, according to Christie’s auction house – and almost certainly is worth significantly more now.
The original 32 soup-can artwork was produced between November 1961 and June 1962
It was produced by tracing projections of soup cans onto canvas, followed by hand brushstrokes
They are regarded as one ‘of the works on which Warhol’s fame as an artist rests’.
It consists of thirty-two canvases, each measuring 20 inches in height × 16 inches in width and each consisting of a painting of a Campbell’s Soup can—one of each of the canned soup varieties the company offered at the time.
The new design remains little changed from the mid-century version Warhol further popularized
The works were Warhol’s hand-painted depictions of printed imagery deriving from commercial products and popular culture and belong to the pop art movement.
Because of the eventual popularity of the entire series of similarly themed works, Warhol’s reputation grew to the point where he was the most-renowned American pop-art.
Warhol’s association with the subject led to his name becoming synonymous with the Campbell’s Soup Can paintings.