In a mealtime battle reminiscent David and Goliath, a reader tweeted about this critique of Campbell’s creepy eighty-calorie soup commercials — and Campbell’s fired right back!
Deux Ex Machinatio wrote, in part,
OK, somebody tell me if I’m missing the boat here, but… since when is 340 calories a completely unacceptable amount to eat for a meal? 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. Note that Campbell’s isn’t in any way playing these ads in the light of “eat our soup for lunch so you can have that cheesecake later.” I’d be a lot more OK with that, even though it still buys into the problematic social imperative for all women to restrict their food intake. But no, the message implicit in that ad is that 340 calories is simply too much to eat, ever.
Philosophyerin agreed! But her “DTM” was only the beginning.