History
One of the most prolific advertising decisions that theTargeting Consumers
The Kids were attractive to children, but they also promoted prevailing societal ideologies as well, mirroring what adult consumers wanted to see in themselves. The early twentieth century saw the birth of modern America and her “relentless faith in progress and can-do spirit.” The Campbell Kids fit well into this framework as they espoused a message of optimism in progress and loyalty to brand and country. Advertising professionals claimed to contribute to progress by guiding consumers to wise product selection. These businesspeople saw themselves as agents of change through material production, and therefore, cultural progress. Advertisers identified women as the primary consumer of many products, so ads often depicted how women could use the advertised technologies to improve their families according to progressive bourgeois values. An important value within the progressive framework was health which resulted in an increasing importance in the purity and nutritional value of food.Sanitation Standards
In the twentieth century there was a campaign to improve sanitation standards in all spheres of American life. Advertising played a significant role in bringing the issue to the American public. Many companies during the period produced goods that they claimed would help fight disease. In Campbell’s early advertising campaigns, the company addressed women consumers and attempted to create insecurities about their roles as mothers and homemakers within a changing modern America. Campbell soup, the ads promised, would not only be convenient, but it also was a healthy choice for their children. The soups are “healthful, wholesome, and absolutely dependable” and “are the result of combining goodness and quality in materials, with conscience in the making,” an ad from 1906 explains (Fig 9). Previously women relied on local grocers to ensure the nutrition and safety of the food they fed their children, but in the modern age, advertising acquired the role. One of the most consistent food advertising messages that targeted mothers was about their children’s health. Chubby, happy, healthy children were used to advertise the health benefits of a product to mothers, as the woman would imagine her own child among the cheerful figures. The Campbell Kids epitomized this strategy, and they guaranteed that with help of Campbell’s soup, the consumer’s children would withstand disease. Advertisers would also adopt scare tactics to persuade mothers into buying their food. Infant and child mortality was still a significant risk for mothers in the early twentieth century. Improvements in technology and medicine helped reduce this possibility, but during the warm summer months and in close quarters with urban neighbors, mothers were aware of the prospect. Within this context, advertisements led mothers to believe that their only hope to keep their children safe was to purchase the correct foods. Campbell used these same techniques to demonstrate to women consumers that their soup would not only be nutritionally good for their children, but their children would love the taste too.Social Darwinism
This discussion on children’s health came out of Social Darwinism, a common feature in advertisements in the early twentieth century. Social Darwinism emphasized how mothers could affect their children’s lives, for better or for worse. Within a competitive economic environment, even greater significance was given to making wise decisions when children were young in order to place them on a path to success. Mothers were responsible for their children’s health and for molding their characters, and advertisers suggested that they could do so through their food habits. Women’s “choices in the kitchen would shape not only their own children, but their community and their country.”Dolls
Evolution
Over time, the Campbell Kids changed in order to keep up with new cultural attitudes and changing standards of physical well-being. In the 1920s, Campbell girls donned flapper dresses and danced the Charleston. Other Campbell Kids were depicted talking on the telephone, flying airplanes, riding construction cranes, and visiting Egypt. These images reflected the increasingly ubiquitous telephone, Lindbergh’s famous transatlantic journey, the rise of skyscraper, and the discovery of King Tut’s tomb. The Campbell Kids were no longer in every Campbell advertisement. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, advertisers determined that the Campbell Kids were ill-suited for the sober economic times. However, advertisers introduced the slogan “M’m! M’m! Good!” and Campbell Kid voices were on the radio shows like Amos n’ Andy. In advertisements, the Kids were dressed as policemen, utility workers, circus trainers, drummer boys, and other roles in service and entertainment. In the 1940s, during World War II, newsprint and tin rationing resulted in cuts in both advertising and soup production, so the Campbell Kids were not as visible as in past years. When they were depicted, they were engaged in wartime production as war bond salesmen and air raid wardens. In 1944, the Campbell Soup Company received an achievement award from the U.S. Department of War for its contributions to the war effort. The 1950s brought on a revival of the Campbell Kids with the rising medium of television and the decade’s emphasis on domesticity. The spread of suburbia and the baby boom contributed to the Kids’ success, and Campbell Kid merchandise of all kinds filled shelves in grocery and department stores. To prepare for their television debut, the Kids were given larger eyes, new clothes, and slightly squarer heads. In commercials they sang “a song of soup sense”, and once again they were prominent in Campbell advertisements. ">The Kids celebrated their 50th birthday in 1955. The 1960s was a decade of social change in the United States, and although Andy Warhol inserted the Campbell soup can into the art world, the Campbell Kids were left largely out of the picture. The Kids were used to introduce the Campbell Soup Company’s new Bounty Line and Red Kettle soups and were seen in some television commercials. In the 1970s the Campbell Kids remained on the side lines. Campbell merchandise did make sporadic comebacks, and the Kids commemorated the United States’ bicentennial event in colonial clothing. The Campbell Kids became more active in the 1980s, promoting youth fitness and slimming down themselves. They participated in soccer, basketball, gymnastics, weightlifting, skiing, and ice skating. The Campbell Kids diversified as well, finally taking on different races and ethnicities. They still advocated for healthy living and were now promoting healthy self-esteem. The Kids remained active in the 1990s, and they pursued more adventurous activities such as hiking up mountaintops and paragliding. They were also depicted studying hard at school and working at computers. The Campbell Kids enjoyed modern conveniences such as boom boxes and skateboards, but they were sometimes illustrated in their traditional early twentieth-century dress. The decade saw their transformation into digital animation. The Campbell Kids were digitally rendered as 3-D figures at the start of the twenty-first century. The Campbell Soup Company’s creative team have begun to consider separating the Kids into three age groups ranging from toddlers to preteens. The Kids now take on various personalities from techno-geek and skater to fashionista, jock, artsy bohemian, and hip-hopper. One suggestion to make the Kids more relevant calls to depict them in more contemporary styles such as anime. With these changes, the Campbell Soup Company hopes that the tots will continue to charm the American public.References
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