Campbell's Soup Low Calorie Commercials: What Do You Think?

By Bethany on Feb 4, 2010

My favorite lunch -- a bowl of romaine lettuce topped with chopped apple, grapes, cucumber, tomato, avocado, and either chopped walnuts or sliced almonds.

Sometimes, I'll get a little crazy and throw in a few dried cranberries! And, I top it all off with a very small splurge of my most beloved poppyseed dressing. (Briana's, if you're wondering.)

It's chock full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, healthy fats, protein, and, oh yeah, about 400 calories of metabolic fuel.

But, according to Campbell's new commericals for their Select Harvest Light soups, that's over 300 calories too many.

Check it out:

The message in this specific ad, is that 340 calories is too much for a woman to consume at one time.

Over at Deus Ex Machinatio, Andrea Phillips writes:

Ignore the underlying message that all women should be on a restricted-calorie diet. That's just too big for me to tackle right now. This is a matter of degree and simple math... Most weight-loss experts recommend that a woman eat between 1,500 and 1,800 calories in a day. (A man would generally need somewhat more.) If you were to eat five of those 340-calorie frozen meals in a day, you'd be at 1,700 calories, which is a perfectly reasonable amount for a typical woman to eat.

She's 100 percent correct. Most nutritionists don't recommend anyone go under 1,200 calories a day, and many believe that's too low. The days of super restrictive low calorie diets are long behind us. They've been proven not to work.

So, what is a feel-good company like Campbell's doing encouraging this kind of behavior?

In their defense, Campbell's Soup for Life Diet recommends combining soup with a salad or sandwich, for a total daily intake of 1,200 calories. But, as Mary Elizabeth Williams points out at Broadsheet, those rolls sitting on the table in the commercial are left to turn stale, while the women enjoy their 60-calorie soup.

Women: It's okay to eat.

It's okay to eat a few hundred calories in a sitting, even if you're trying to lose weight. The key is to balance your calories in with your calories out, and focus on whole, healthy foods. Instead of looking at food as the enemy, welcome it into your life as the fuel and nourishment as it is.

Sorry Campbell's, but you got this one wrong. What do you think about this commercial?

8 Comments

DD on 4 Feb 2010

In my view, Campbell's is always pulling at straws in its commercials. Whether it's associating tomato soup with a happy family life, or presenting "Soup 2 Go" as an efficient way for the modern women to eat lunch at her desk because she certainly should not be taking a break from her busy work day... they really make some pretty pathetic (but sadly typical) cultural commentary.

What's also left out of the picture is that their soups are chock-full of sodium - big no-no.

I totally agree with you. Straight up wrong.

Jodi on 4 Feb 2010

I really thought I was the only person offended by those commercials. Its good to know I'm the only one.

musajen on 4 Feb 2010

I think what bugs me most about this commercial is the food industry commenting on/lamenting nutrition. Basically all food commercials bug me for this reason.

The food industry (as we know it today) was born because there are food/agricultural waste products to use up. All food products in boxes and packages are creative ways that companies have come up with to eek every bit of profit out of their refuse. Which, on one hand, I can't blame them, "waste not, want not."

But when they hail their reconfigured waste as "good for me," well that just makes me want to scream and throw things at the tv.

And have you ever tasted those soups? All these "healthy" and "lite" soups taste like p*ss with a little processed chicken and limp veggies thrown in. You'd be better off making your own pot of soup. For 30-40 more calories per serving you could actually have a little flavor and nutrition.

MyQute on 4 Feb 2010

Ditch it anyway....if you can't, reduce it. Vegetable shortening in such soup is trans-fat.

Spectra on 4 Feb 2010

I've seen that commercial before and I was thinking the same thing: How is 310 calories a really high number? Seems very reasonable to me. However, I do actually like the Campbell's Light soups as a PART of my meal if I am too busy to make my own soup. It's filling without being too heavy and I like the flavors. Still, I think that commercial is pretty misleading. It's sort of like those Special K commercials that show a size 2 woman getting stuck in her kid's toy chair and implying that she's a lardass and needs to lose a few hundred pounds.

Jody - Fit at 52 on 4 Feb 2010

Spectra, I thought that same thing about that Special K commercial! Plus all the other lose weight ones where the person is so friggin thin already!

I agree on the calorie thing too. Way too much pressure for woment to eat too little!

Vicki on 5 Feb 2010

Aghhh! I always get annoyed at this commercial. 80 calories of soup is not a meal! That is not going to satisfy anyone. There's nothing wrong with eating a 310 calorie meal with 8 grams of fat... that's a massive improvement over what most of America eats these days.

pj on 11 Feb 2010

I get so sick of Campbells..and there soups loaded with sodium and msg...most of their soups have almost 900mg of sodium per serving!Eat the whole can and thats a whopping 1800 mgs of sodium! And look at the soup for kids...future high blood pressure problems.
Now their soup labels say "no msg "added"!So that tells me they already have a ton of msg and they arent adding any more...I have been eating this soup since I was a child and always had headaches after I ate it...Im going back to eating real fruits and vegetables..the garden of eden diet!