Campbell Soup to Offer Warhol-Inspired Cans

Tags: Advertising, Branding, Campbell's Soup, Collaborations, Contemporary Art, Pop Art, Target, Warhol

Campbell Soup has announced a line of limited edition Warhol-inspired soup cans. The 1.2 million cans will be available this Sunday at Target stores nationwide for ¢75 each.

It is the 3rd endeavor for the company to collaborate with the Warhol brand, but by far the largest. In 2004, it sold 75,000 packs of Warhol-inspired cans at Giant Eagle, a Pittsburgh-based supermarket (seemingly random, but not– Pittsburgh is the home of the Andy Warhol Museum, and the artist is buried in the greater metropolitan area). They also teamed up with Barney’s New York in 2006 for the sale of 12,000 cans during the holiday season.

Warhol and Campbell Soup established a life-long friendship after the production of Warhol’s infamous silkscreened renderings of the soup can image.

While it appears the company originally tensed at his appropriation of their cans, it eventually embraced the free publicity and Warhol as an unofficial ambassador.

A marketing manager at Campbell wrote him a letter in 1964 to express admiration of the artist. “I have since learned that you like Tomato Soup,” wrote William MacFarland. “I am taking the liberty of having a couple cases of our Tomato Soup delivered to you.”

The company also commissioned Warhol to paint a Campbell Tomato Soup can for its retiring board chairman, Oliver G. Willits, for which he was paid $2,000.

[via Huffington Post]

Photo courtesy of Alamy