2008
Jan
30
soup tragedy
A perk of working from home is the ability to make a nice lunch. Winter blues call for warming soups and the good old Campbell’s Condensed always goes down a treat with some crusty white doorsteps. But shock horror today! The label had changed and slapped over the classic red and white band was an ugly swatch: “Soon to be Batchelors”.
Batchelors will only ever make me think of grim, salty, dusty cup-a-soups that my mum subjected me to as a kid, not the lovely thick and creamy Campbells that Makes Double. This is a soup tragedy!
So many icons of 20th century culture are being swallowed up, rebranded, rebooted, renewed — and often to the detriment of the product in question. Will there be anything left for us to remember in ten years? Twenty?
Luckily, further investigation reveals that Batchelors won’t be changing the recipes and as they haven’t actually bought the brand, we might yet see Campbells on the label again in 2013.
I wonder by how much this will increase the value of Warhol’s classics?
Dominic Holmes
03/2/2008 2:18pm
Ahh, but nothing beats a nice home-made soup. Growing up with my grandmother, it was usual for many of the left overs to make their way into soup a few times a week.
Cook a load up, bung it in the fridge and you’ve got a supply of delicious, soul sustaining soup that will keep you going for days. And on that note I should learn how to cook a good soup myself!
04/2/2008 11:23am
I certainly wasn’t suggesting Campbells were better than a home made soup! You’re right, it’s high time I learnt the apparently simple art of soup making too. And as the family seem to be telling me something by constantly buying me cookery books, I reckon everyone else thinks so too….