Right now, anything organic is hot in the food industry. That's one reason that soup making giant Campbell's Soup Company bought the Wolfgang Puck line of organic soups from Country Gourmet Foods. In addition to purchasing the soup line for an "undisclosed sum," Campbell's Soup had to negotiate a licensing agreement with Wolfgang Puck Worldwide to keep using Puck's image on the soup.
Campbell's Soup may have made forays into the organic or natural market with a few products, but according to Advertising Age the brand is really hoping that the Wolfgang Puck line will add some prestige, not to mention get their foot in the door at Whole Foods.
How do you feel about Campbell's Soup owning the Wolfgang Puck line? Do you think they are unfairly buying their way into the organic market, or is this an acceptable tactic?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-03-2008 @ 7:37PM
Bernie B said...
Does that also include his line of boxed Broths? Puck's boxed beef broth is pretty darn good.
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7-03-2008 @ 8:59PM
Cold Mud said...
How ethical would you say it was to use Cold Mud as an uncredited source of many of your stories?
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7-03-2008 @ 10:30PM
marcella said...
Awesome. Now campbell's can add MSG!! yeah! And then take it out and call it low sodium/healthy request! YEAH. Campbell's seems to ruin everything. They own Pepperidge Farm, Godiva, etc. All went to crap after the purchase.
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7-04-2008 @ 12:11AM
Scott said...
It's not like everything labeled "organic" is owned by a small mom-and-pop company. Organic food is a HUGE industry right now, and huge bureaucratic corporations own most of what we see in the grocery stores... cute pictures of little family farms are plastered on the container, after being voted "likely to sell stuff to people" by consumer research groups. "Free range" chicken gets the title after having a tiny door the chickens never use, which gets opened 1 hour each day. Anyway. Ranting. But still. Campbell's owning Puck's soup line is no different than the rest of the big-name organic industry.
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7-04-2008 @ 12:05PM
doodoolemonque said...
The more appropriate question is how this will effect Wolfgang Puck's reputation. Is he selling out, or is that irrelevant and already a moot question ? I mean, who cares about Campbell's??
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7-04-2008 @ 2:59PM
TheGrammarTroll said...
"Do you think they are unfairly buying their way into the organic market, or is this an acceptable tactic?"
Huh? So it wouldn't be "fair" for Campbell's to buy Wolfgang Schmuck's line of soups? What, in your mind, *would* be fair? Should Wolfgang Schmuck only sell out to the Smelly Hippie Co-Op of Santa Clara, CA?
Should Campbell's be forced to their knees and beg for contrition before buying an "organic" company? Should they repent all their old sins and create organic soups in-house as a form of penance?
All money is green, honey.
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7-04-2008 @ 6:53PM
Coco said...
MSG = mono SODIUM glutamate, doesn't make it less salty. and whats wrong with msg anyways? its natural in protiens and derived from funghi
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7-04-2008 @ 8:48PM
hng23 said...
What's wrong w/msg is that it's common for people to have mild to severe reactions to it that range from headaches & dizziness to blackouts.
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7-04-2008 @ 10:40PM
Arbert said...
Wolfgang Puck's Portobello Mushroom Soup: Now with 35% more weird chunks of salty pink chicken!
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7-06-2008 @ 2:39PM
Jess said...
Have any of you ever tasted his soup? I have and to me it is not very good I could't even eat it. when I bought it I was thinking "this is going to be good! boy was I disppointed!!!!
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7-09-2008 @ 12:42AM
Ed T said...
Organic smorganic. They needed the shelf space, he was cheap, end of story.
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7-11-2008 @ 5:20PM
hot organic chick said...
Campbell's has a lot of experience in organic now. they have had several products for a few years,and this just adds to their stable. They have this guy named Steve Demuri who I have heard speak, and he knows his manure. He is on the national board of organics, or soemthing like that.
I say mmmmm good!
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7-11-2008 @ 5:23PM
hot organic chick said...
mmmm good. Campbell has a lot of organic products and this adds some class to their stable. they have this guy named Steve Demuri who I have heard speak, and he knows his organic manure.
now we can say "I could have had a Puck!"
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8-05-2008 @ 5:39PM
hot organic chick said...
I think Demuri is speaking at the next organic show in Chicago. We should hear more about Puck.
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