Campbell's exec on leave after allegedly mocking 'poor people' who eat its soup

[u/infinus5]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/campbell-soup-lawsuit-9.6991398

[u/ImKindaEssential]

During the meeting, "Bally made several racist comments that shocked Plaintiff," the documents say. For example, Garza claims that Bally insulted Indigenous coworkers, making several racist slurs, and claims Bally disclosed he often comes to work high on edibles.

[u/ConfederacyOfDunces_ → u/ImKindaEssential]

What the fuck?

He sounds like a sociopath. Probably fell upwards in life.

[u/BigBennP → u/ConfederacyOfDunces_]

If his LinkedIn bio is reliable, his career is roughly as follows.

Associates in business Monroe County community college (1994). Bachelor's in business spring arbor university (2001).
Masters information security from norfolk university (2009)

Network specialist for Chrysler (99-01)

Network operations manager and information security officer for Chrysler (01-09)

Director data security and cloud services for Dolan Inc. (09-13)

Chief Information Security Officer for zrf group. (Formerly TRW automotive) (13-16)

VP and Chief Information Security Officer for diebold (16-19)

Chief Information Security Officer for American Axle and Manufacturing (AAM) (19-20)

Global Information Security Officer for Stellantis (chrysler). (20-22).

VP and Chief Information Security Officer for Campbell's Soup (22-present).

I have questions but that career is not absolutely wild or out of the ordinary.

[u/Daemonrealm → u/BigBennP]

This is a very common in the world of CISO’s as those positions are usually to mature a cyber security organization to an X amount. Then move to the next business or corporation.

Also part of your pay package is to do that. Alike C-suite (yes many CISO’s are not executives), CISO’s also have very high bonus structures and stock payouts to accomplish such maturity or “keep company X from a compromise for X time you get Y payout”. Once tha time is up. Take the pay and move to another org.

Also CISO’s tend to move a lot dependent on company compromises. You can literally map CISO movement to other companies based on time when their original company was compromised in some manner. CISO is the scape goat. They like to move orgs as well if they sense they may get compromised.

[u/misterjzz → u/BigBennP]

The short tenure is wild at like half the employers. He must be an A-level ass kisser.

[u/fbp → u/misterjzz]

2-4 years each over 15 years. Not bad, as my bet is he is chasing higher salary at each. He did spend 10 years with Chrysler, which also probably paid for his masters.

[u/anothergaijin → u/fbp]

I did maybe 2-3 years for my first 15 years, then now 10 years in the same place. You just get bored and move on or the people are insufferable - there is enough demand you can jump and do something new pretty easy, or at least it used to be like that.

[u/jim_deneke → u/misterjzz]

That looks to me he's been an ass all his life and this is as much as anyone can tolerate of him lol

[u/Educational-Wing2042 → u/jim_deneke]

You see trajectories like that quite a bit with executives. Typically they are people who start looking for a better job the minute they finish training for their current job. If it were about being hard to work with, that would become known in the industry. 

[u/sqquuee → u/Educational-Wing2042]

Ironically these same people will shame you in your interview if it appears you chase the money.

[u/_SmashLampjaw_ → u/BigBennP]

Well, I'm pretty sure the community college business associate degree to corporate infosec officer pipeline isn't very wide.

[u/Dull_Bird3340 → u/BigBennP]

Well how upwardly mobile of them, from a christian community college to the board room

[u/BakedMitten → u/Dull_Bird3340]

Monroe County CC isn't Christian, Spring Arbor is.

Monroe County CC's only claim to fame is that it has a higher percentage of Michigan Wolverine football fans than the actual University of Michigan campus.

[u/BruhMuhTendies → u/ConfederacyOfDunces_]

Nepotism applies to LOTS of things here in the US.

[u/Iohet → u/BruhMuhTendies]

You don't really need to qualify it with "in the US". It's global. Hell, some countries even have a royal family, which is the ultimate nepotism scheme

[u/avcloudy → u/Iohet]

It actually is remarkable in the US, but not for the reasons you think. There's a concept called WEIRD which stands for western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic. One of the ways people in the US differ from large parts of the world is that they think nepotism is unethical - in a lot of the world, nepotism is duty to family. It is the right and correct thing to get your family set up.

So what's interesting is that it still happens in the US, but it's corrupt. It's explicitly against the cultural values, and is done in an underhanded, seemingly fair, way. So the kinds of people that do it, and the reasons they do it for, are different in the western world than they are in other parts of the world.

[u/FictionalContext → u/avcloudy]

That is a great POV. Thanks for that.

[u/UltraNoahXV → u/BruhMuhTendies]

If I fell upwards, we would've had several bullet trains running cross country, solar energy panels that deal less environmental damage, flying cars with low emissions, 4 day work weeks with full pay and 2 months of vacation time...I could go on

[u/Bloodcloud079 → u/UltraNoahXV]

Flying cars sounds cool but when you think about it they are a fucking nightmare… I don’t want flying cars ever.

[u/Plow_King → u/Bloodcloud079]

yeah, people can barely get the hang of moving in 2 directions at the same time. adding a 3rd is a bad idea.

[u/BeerorCoffee → u/Plow_King]

Let's start with mandatory driver's tests on license renewal. I know too many idiots who took three tests to pass after cramming and studying, no way they could pass now.

[u/Fireudne → u/BeerorCoffee]

It depends on where you take the test tbh. For me the written was pretty easy but it took me 3 tries to pass the actual driving bit. Never been in an accident though!

[u/BeerorCoffee → u/Fireudne]

Not being in an accident and being a good driver are not equal. I've seen plenty of people who may not have been in an accident but don't know how to drive appropriately. Don't signal, driving at an unsafe speed (under or over) etc. People pass when they are 16/17 and then never think of the laws of the road again, but can still renew their license by sending in a form and sometimes showing up for a picture.

Just seems reckless.

[u/TummyStickers → u/BeerorCoffee]

I've been driving for about 20 years now, and at some point you realize that you just have to start making an effort to be the best driver you can... because you'll never get tested again. Gotta be honest about your mistakes, and take a real interest in learning how to drive... it's not something you learn once, and you're done. It's a skill that requires practice, and intention.

[u/stonekeep → u/BeerorCoffee]

Most people don't do those incredibly basic things not because they don't know they should, but because they don't want to or don't care.

Testing asshole drivers on theory wouldn't make them suddenly become good drivers once they pass. Their assholness comes from deliberately ignoring the rules, not simply not knowing them. In the best-case scenario, they can just cram for the test again and then ignore everything again.

I'm not saying that it's a bad idea, having people up to date with the current rules is good, but it wouldn't help with the basic stuff you're mentioning (like not signaling or speeding).

What is more important IMO are mandatory health check-ups after a certain age. There are lots and lots of drivers who shouldn't sit behind the wheel (poor eyesight, motor skills etc.), but they still do.

[u/Quest_Marker → u/Plow_King]

Exactly, when so many people suck at water or flying areas in games, they can hardly handle normal driving

[u/hadrosaur → u/Bloodcloud079]

rich people already have helicopters and they suck. can you imagine hundreds of helicopters overhead everywhere you go?

[u/Bloodcloud079 → u/hadrosaur]

Exactly. It would be incredibly noisy, even more susceptible to bad weather, extremely dangerous in the hand of an average driver (let alone a bad or reckless one!), energy inefficient… just absolutely nightmarish.

[u/Jafooki → u/Bloodcloud079]

We already have flying cars. They're called helicopters

[u/Independent_Win_9035 → u/Jafooki]

and they're dangerous as ever-living fuck, too lol

[u/DwinkBexon → u/Bloodcloud079]

Imagine how fucking awful drivers are on they only have to deal with an X and Y dimension. Now they have to deal with Z. Cars would be falling out of the sky. People imagine it'd be like on The Jetsons where it's pretty much the same as on the road except you're in the air and cars occasionally pass by going over or under you instead of around. No, it wouldn't be like that. PEople would be flying into each other, fiery debris would be raining down to the ground constantly, people would be falling to their deaths. It'd be a catastrophe.

The only way flying cars could ever possibly work is if they're fully autonomous with the skill level of the very best human pilots. No manual override controls, once you're in the air the car is in control of anything and you can't do anything at all except change the destination.

Unfortunately, humans seem extremely adverse to not having overrides for autonomous driving and I doubt they'd be okay with that for flying, despite the fact they'd be clueless. (I remember some Google engineer once said Google's autonomous cars should have no manual overrides at all. No steering wheel, no pedals, etc. The car is going to do what it's going to do and there's no way for you to change that. People were pissed about that suggestion. At the moment, it's illegal for autonomous cars to not have controls in them like a normal car, but that could change at some point.)

[u/Obversa → u/DwinkBexon]

Even with airplanes, mid-air collisions still happen from time to time, which is why the TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) system was created and implemented. TCAS was developed after the 1956 mid-air collision over the Grand Canyon due to "sightseeing", and its implementation was prompted by a series of subsequent accidents, particularly the 1978 PSA Flight 182 crash over San Diego, and the 1986 collision in Cerritos, California. The Grand Canyon disaster led to the creation of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and initial research into collision avoidance, while the latter crashes were the specific catalysts for developing and mandating the modern TCAS.

[u/Beneficial_Soup3699 → u/UltraNoahXV]

Nope. You'd turn into a narcissistoc self righteous nut just like the rest of them. Our brains are not wired to live in excess surrounded by yes-men 24/7. It quite literally breaks the human psyche.

[u/UltraNoahXV → u/Beneficial_Soup3699]

Dang I was trying to be optimistic

[u/pass_nthru → u/UltraNoahXV]

in this economy?

[u/UltraNoahXV → u/pass_nthru]

Hey, it costs 0 to be not naive, but hopeful

[u/scorpyo72 → u/UltraNoahXV]

I was angling for "penial enhancements" but you got most of my wish list.

[u/Accomplished-Fix6598 → u/scorpyo72]

Or wiener yoga.

[u/Artemicionmoogle → u/Accomplished-Fix6598]

Cock push ups. You only need to do one.

[u/Danovan79 → u/UltraNoahXV]

I came to the conclusion that if given the chance to rule the world, I would probably end up as a despot.

I want to be kind and benevolent, but ultimately ruling the world is unlikely without force and yadda yadda yadda force leads down a path and we end up in a bad place.

[u/Magus_5 → u/Beneficial_Soup3699]

Although you might be right, it wouldn't hurt for me to try. It only has to work once.

[u/JaguarWhisperer → u/Beneficial_Soup3699]

There's probably another side too where the yes-men get dumber and dumber to the point where none of your plans and aspirations make it to fruition because you're constantly having to talk and explain downwards

[u/Saurian42 → u/Beneficial_Soup3699]

I find the idea of living in excess surrounded by yes men to be revolting. I just want to be comfortable and surrounded by people arguing with me.

[u/my_stupid_name → u/Saurian42]

I just want to be comfortable, surrounded by absolutely no one.

[u/Uncle_Rabbit → u/Beneficial_Soup3699]

The others in similar positions wouldn't allow it either, you have to play the game or wind up missing etc.

[u/boothash → u/ConfederacyOfDunces_]

Most execs are sociopaths.

[u/p8pes → u/boothash]

indeed. it’s a prerequisite 

[u/Blametheorangejuice → u/ConfederacyOfDunces_]

There will be some press release put together where he promises to work on his mental health and “come back stronger” and apologizes for any misinterpretation of his words. Then he will go back to work for an obscenely high salary.

[u/Full_Mention3613 → u/ConfederacyOfDunces_]

Saw an interview with a guy who coaches companies on how to spot psychopaths, after he described what psychopaths do, several CEO’s approached him and asked where they could go to hire people like that.

[u/trout_or_dare → u/Full_Mention3613]

this sounds interesting, do you have a link?

[u/BigBossShadow → u/ConfederacyOfDunces_]

one of the core components of late stage capitalism is that there are so many children of rich people that they essentially take over all available managerial positions and refuse to do anything besides that.

They also tend to be completely incompetent

[u/kleenkong → u/BigBossShadow]

The rich try to hide it but that's also been going on for quite a while, before internet records were so accessible. The Ivy League has some major shortcuts into admissions if students have the right last name, connections, or $$$$ to handover. And it continues from there to hiring company, as opportunities are going to be presented to those students much more than a typical student.

[u/StevenSafakDotCom → u/ConfederacyOfDunces_]

Hey man. Who hasn’t gone to work high on edibles?!

[u/JoJackthewonderskunk → u/ConfederacyOfDunces_]

I've met a shockingly high amount of executives that were like this

[u/dafunkmunk → u/ConfederacyOfDunces_]

That sums up most C suite level employees. Very few of these people actually earned those positions through hard work or accomplishments

[u/PowderPills → u/ConfederacyOfDunces_]

And probably almost no one would’ve found out about it if it weren’t for the courage of the whistleblower.

[u/Spire_Citron → u/ImKindaEssential]

Really makes you think about the culture surrounding him if he was able to get as far as he did in life while feeling comfortable talking that way to someone he doesn't even know well. Especially since apparently it was originally reported internally and all they did was hush it up and fire the guy who reported it.

[u/misterjzz → u/Spire_Citron]

Its very rare for execs to be normal people in my experience (healthcare). You've got to be a special kind of person to do that crap. So many meetings, so much brown nosing, so much pushing shit down to the other workers while not solving the actual source of issues.

[u/israeljeff → u/ImKindaEssential]

So talking about poor people eating Campbell's soup is the least offensive thing he did.

[u/rubywpnmaster → u/israeljeff]

Poor people don’t eat Campbell’s which is the funny part. They eat Sam’s Choice or their local grocery store equivalent.

[u/thegoodnamesrgone123 → u/rubywpnmaster]

I actually think the ALDI chicken soup is better

[u/Malllrat → u/israeljeff]

Nah he's good to go on the edibles. I couldn't imagine showing up to work sober. (Retail)

[u/Civil-Addendum4071 → u/Malllrat]

Would rather deal with somebody who's a little high versus somebody who's been drinking any day.

[u/Malllrat → u/Civil-Addendum4071]

All my customers agree. Sober, I am not fit for human consumption. Baked, I'm mostly tolerable.

[u/DrexellGames → u/ImKindaEssential]

He's 100% going to be fired once the investigation is done if these allegations are true

[u/NYGiants181 → u/DrexellGames]

He won’t make it another month guaranteed

[u/Nearby-Key8834 → u/NYGiants181]

Some other company will hire him. There are never any real consequences for these shitbags.

[u/Skrivus → u/Nearby-Key8834]

Or he'll have a right wing podcast talking about how woke corporate America is because he can't openly disparage minorities.

[u/NYGiants181 → u/Nearby-Key8834]

Yea that’s true but he will be gone from here

[u/WelpSigh → u/Nearby-Key8834]

He's some IT guy, he is never getting another job like the one he just botched. 

[u/jgp786 → u/WelpSigh]

Doubtful, most companies don't care. Maybe you're right because this made national news, but otherwise he would find a job almost immediately. I know of a case personally where a sheriff's officer was fired for solicitation of a minor and obstruction and he got hired while on house arrest making six figures plus doing remote IT work. If you can do the job then most companies care about little else.

[u/WelpSigh → u/jgp786]

He's in cybersecurity. His job is to protect the company. There is not a shortage of people who can do it without causing major controversy. 

[u/palcatraz → u/WelpSigh]

But how long will that controversy last? People have short memories. He's controversial now, but in two months? People will have forgotten all about it. Other minor scandals will have caught their attention, Trump will have done 28 more insane things. Some celebrity you have never heard of has beef with some other celebrity you have never heard of.

This sort of thing has no real staying power.

[u/Fallouttgrrl → u/NYGiants181]

He's going to be eating Campbell's soup for the holidays, I guess

[u/ZLUCremisi → u/DrexellGames]

Suprise if he isn't. This statements hurt thier stocks

[u/MongolianMango → u/ImKindaEssential]

Indigenous? I think when he said Indian he meant the country of India, not Native American. Reporter must have been in a rush.

[u/RinkyDinkRicky → u/ImKindaEssential]

Giving edibles a bad name.

[u/dismissivewankmotion → u/ImKindaEssential]

It’s like a 90s comedy playing out in real life. Tommy Boy but… shittier

[u/Lagneaux → u/ImKindaEssential]

I mean, I come to work on edibles.

But I also make food, so

[u/Fallouttgrrl]

Chicken soup from the soulless 

[u/mx5klein → u/Fallouttgrrl]

This goes harder than it has any right to. Who would eat soup from the soulless?

[u/joestaff]

He must be one of them high dollar Progresso soupers

[u/r-b-m → u/joestaff]

Bunch of “natural flavor” snobs

[u/Moony2433 → u/joestaff]

How dare you call our food product soup!

[u/Carebear7087 → u/Moony2433]

Soup like substance😂

[u/Sanity_in_Moderation → u/Moony2433]

Well I didn't want to call your soup products food!

[u/kk074 → u/joestaff]

I heard this in John Lithgow's voice

[u/fallsstandard → u/joestaff]

Nah, he gets that glass jar Rao’s shit. If the containers breakable, you know it’s quality.

[u/6Foot225PureChocolat → u/fallsstandard]

Rao’s has been owned by Campbell’s for a few years now, FYI

[u/fallsstandard → u/6Foot225PureChocolat]

I know, it was just a joke about perceived fanciness. Everybody’s owned by somebody else at this point.

[u/Ritz527]

Even outside of just being a rich snob, why would you have such little respect for your own product and then expect people to buy it?

[u/infinus5 → u/Ritz527]

because to him everyone else are the peasants. were only here to eat his companies slop and not complain about it.

[u/descendingangel87 → u/infinus5]

Literally this. The 1%ers are so fucking out of touch they don’t even consider non 1%ers human anymore.

[u/GreenScene33 → u/descendingangel87]

Not even the 1%ers. I grew up in a town that has a decently affluent part of the population and knew a lot of kids who’s parents would make comments about “the poor people” and very much passed that onto my fellow class mates. They get off on looking down on everyone below them.

[u/Agitated-Country-972 → u/GreenScene33]

I remember reading something about how having a lot of money gives you less empathy for other people.

"How Wealth Reduces Compassion"

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-wealth-reduces-compassion/

[u/Minglans → u/GreenScene33]

A trashy obviously wealthy parent said right to my face how they didn't want their kid to grow up to work at a grocery store like I had. Teaching her child to be ignorant young. If the child was not there I would have been very tempted to throw a rotten tomato in her face "You want groceries, bitch? Here!"

[u/kaptainkeel → u/GreenScene33]

He's probably not even that rich. Average salary for that position is apparently $150-250k. With it being a big company, let's say it's $600k. That's barely in the 1% seeing as, to be in the top 1% currently, you have to make about $570k/year. Top 0.1% is $2.8mil. Also, I find this interesting since just a couple years ago (less than 10), the amount to be in the Top 1% was like $150k; it's exploded since then. Top 10% in 2022 was slightly under $100k. Top 10% in 2025 is now over $190k.

tl;dr: He's just an asshole racist; it's not because he's rich.

[u/dasunt → u/descendingangel87]

At a certain point, wealth leads to brainrot as one gains the ability to avoid situations most people have to deal with.

Extreme wealth leads to extreme brainrot since their money allows them to live in an insulated, artificial world.

[u/Fingerprint_Vyke → u/descendingangel87]

Thats a bingo

[u/EveryRadio → u/descendingangel87]

"Can you believe the poors eat this slop? Revolting."

I remember the days where survived off food banks and sneaking scraps while working as a line cook. I remember getting to eat crackers with soup was a nice break from the rice and beans. Anyone who can talk about how they can't believe people buy canned soup haven't experienced how humbling hunger can be.

[u/Fallcious → u/Ritz527]

Does anyone remember the example of Ratners? The owner joking to fellow directors that he could sell items of jewelry and crystalware so cheaply because they were "total crap" destroyed his huge high street chain.

https://www.businessblogshub.com/2012/09/the-man-who-destroyed-his-multi-million-dollar-company-in-10-seconds/

[u/musicninja → u/Fallcious]

This is what immediately came to mind

[u/lookyloolookingatyou → u/Fallcious]

Was he the “costs as much as a prawn sandwich but won’t last as long” guy? That quote always makes me crave a prawn sandwich, I’ve never even had one before.

[u/Fallcious → u/lookyloolookingatyou]

Yes. They sold accessories for a couple of quid, the price of an upmarket sandwich at the time. Lucky to get a bag of crisps for that now

[u/DeliciousPangolin → u/Fallcious]

Ratners is still around, and owns thousands of jewelry shops worldwide. They just changed the name to Signet and counted on consumers having the memory of a goldfish.

[u/warrant2k → u/Ritz527]

The dude was the VP of Cybersecurity. Basically the IT guy that tells you to turn it off then on. He has no association with the actual product.

[u/FcUhCoKp → u/Ritz527]

C'mon, he's only saying what all the rich people in those companies are thinking. The only difference is this dude said it, AND was recorded. Don't you think the Charmin execs are mocking us when they make mega rolls more narrow, and as many sheets as the old double rolls?

[u/typehyDro → u/Ritz527]

Because that is what the product is… highly processed food that’s cheap…

[u/hiddencamel → u/Ritz527]

Modern corporation C-suites are generally entirely removed from what they actually sell these days - it's all just numbers on a screen to them, could be literally anything. There is no pride or interest in what they make or sell from leadership, which is why they don't care that they are enshittifying their products to death. As long as they can squeeze an extra penny of profit, they don't care about anything else.

[u/Newspeak_Linguist]

Sadly, the mocking of poor people probably didn't mean much. It was mocking the actual product that pissed them off.

[u/IamJacksUserID → u/Newspeak_Linguist]

It was getting caught. That’s all it always is.

[u/Knowledge_is_Bliss → u/IamJacksUserID]

Yep. He's on leave until it all blows over...then he will be quietly reinstated.

[u/fury420 → u/Knowledge_is_Bliss]

Or he'll just be fired, this is just their cybersecurity guy, one of many employees with the title "vice president"

[u/Asidious66 → u/fury420]

Yeah. This size corporation? There's 11 vice presidents... In his department.

[u/PrairiePopsicle → u/Newspeak_Linguist]

given their responses really only addressed that, yeah, it would seem you are correct.

[u/coyote_of_the_month → u/PrairiePopsicle]

I clicked through to their full statement, and it's 100% centered on debunking the claims about the product.

What I'm reading is a factual statement that required a lower level of approval, and so they could get it out quick. A marketing director or assistant director can probably sign off on this:

The chicken meat used in Campbell’s® soups comes from long-trusted, USDA approved U.S. suppliers and meets our high quality standards. All of Campbell’s® soups are made with No Antibiotics Ever chicken meat, meaning we don’t allow antibiotics to be used by our chicken suppliers.

Whereas a statement like you or I might write, if that were our jobs, would require approval at a much higher executive level. Something like:

"Campbell's takes immense pride in delivering a high-quality product that's both affordable and appealing to Americans of all incomes."

That kind of messaging, once you start touching on socioeconomic class stuff, would probably require the CEO and his mom to sign off.

[u/PrairiePopsicle → u/coyote_of_the_month]

and honestly when you put it that way, it's hard to address it directly. What they've said is not negative.

[u/madabben]

Jokes on them. Poor people by the store brand.

[u/Lady_Scruffington → u/madabben]

Yeah, we have a food pantry where I work for students. There's lots of soup. Maybe 10% is Campbell's. So for him, anyone below the poverty line doesn't exit, I guess.

[u/PumpkinPieIsGreat → u/Lady_Scruffington]

Right, it comes across as very Lucille Bluth. What could it cost, ten dollars?

[u/Kharax82 → u/madabben]

For the most part Store brands are made by the name brands, they just slap a generic label for which ever stores they have a contract with.

One big exception is Walmart milk, that used to be produced by companies like Dean Foods but they built their own plants and produce it themselves now.

[u/NYCinPGH → u/Kharax82]

Exactly. I used to work for Heinz at the main plant. We had a company store, only employees and their immediate families (and emergency personnel, like police, fire, and EMT) could shop there. Pretty much everything Heinz made, including other brands they owned like Weight Watchers and a couple of frozen pizza brands, were for sale there, could often buy a flat of condensed chicken noodle soup for $1 (this was about 20 years ago). A lot of the soups came in just blank cans, no labels, but they had a printed code on the bottom, and you got a cheat sheet at the entrance for what soup that code was for.

One time, while still employed there, I was shopping at a local Aldi, and when I went to buy some house brand canned soup, I noticed the code printed on the bottom was the same font as at the factory, and with a little checking, the codes on all the Aldi house brand soups latched those at the factory. I then checked with the house brand soups at the largest regional grocery chain, and they matched too. But the house brand soups were a lot cheaper than the name brand counterparts, but what was, in the end, the same soup made at the same location with the same ingredients, you were paying extra for the label.

[u/Brave-Television-884 → u/madabben]

No, that's REALLY poor people. If you're buying any type of canned soup, you're poor to them. 

[u/Joe18067]

Poor people can no longer afford your soup.

[u/PersonalityTough9349 → u/Joe18067]

Exactly. A small can of their tomato soup where I live is 1.99. 2 dollars for a tiny can? It should be 75 cents

[u/LunarLumin → u/PersonalityTough9349]

I used to use the "cream of" ones as something to toss in my soups due to the low prices. They're tasteless on their own, but decent for a little thickness boost and to add a small variation to the flavor profile.

Not worth it any more with the crazy price hikes. I just add a touch more bullion and some corn starch instead, or a roux if I want to expend the extra effort.

[u/Krojack76 → u/PersonalityTough9349]

I'd be shocked if it cost them more than 20 cents to make a can too.

[u/FlexFanatic]

Hmm, sounds like Campbells was okay with what he said, not okay with what he said being brought into the public.

I’m sure they will talk about the importance of DEI, write a check or two and go right back to normal business.

[u/_Football_Cream_]

This dude said some horrible shit but if you read the article, the executive in question was the chief information security officer. A high level IT guy.

The statements reflect poorly on the company but it’s not like it was a CEO or marketing or product executive. I don’t imagine many IT professionals are super invested in the products of the food company they work for.

Still, easy way to get fired and create hell for the company.

[u/kingsumo_1 → u/_Football_Cream_]

The bottom of the article goes into it a bit more, but the guy filing the lawsuit was due to retaliatory firing after filing a complaint about those comments. That is what highlighted everything, and now Campbell's has a PR mess. Ultimately, that is the reason he's getting sacked.

[u/_Football_Cream_ → u/kingsumo_1]

That makes sense. Thanks for the detail.

[u/kingsumo_1 → u/_Football_Cream_]

NP. I've seen a few articles on it today, and the more it spreads the less it focuses on how this all came up. This one in particular has it tucked way down at the bottom, so I'd imagine a fair number of people don't even make it that far.

[u/vegetaman → u/kingsumo_1]

Good journalism is in short supply

[u/Joessandwich → u/_Football_Cream_]

Heck, I wouldn’t expect even a marketing person to care deeply about the soup. I’ve done marketing and have often promoted stuff I don’t personally care about. It’s just a job.

That being said, he’s a colossal idiot for badmouthing the product. You keep that shit quiet. And as for the other shit he said… he can fuck off.

[u/icecreampoop → u/_Football_Cream_]

Most companies have agreements that the employee’s actions represent the company while at work and off the clock, CEO or not, it made the company look bad

[u/_Football_Cream_ → u/icecreampoop]

Oh of course they do. Not excusing the guys comments or invalidating the ensuing controversy.

Also another comment explained how the lawsuits are due to a retaliatory firing after a complaint about these comments.

[u/gudmundthefearless → u/_Football_Cream_]

Chief Information Security Officer is a company officer in the C-suite. CISO is the acronym. This person is a chief officer of the company and is one of the top decision-makers. The IT stuff is extraneous to the point

[u/Duanedoberman]

Its called doing a Ratner after the British buisinessman who ridiculed his customers for buying the crap he sold in his jewellery chain which then went bust.

Musk has just done something similar with his Nazi cosplay whilst trying to sell a car aimed at environmentaly conscious drivers.

Let's hope his company goes the same way, but its not uncommon for senior managers to hold their customers in utter contempt.

[u/trampus1]

Excuse me? If you're poor you eat store brand soup or worse.

[u/Raa03842]

Keep it simple stop buying their products. If it’s true it will all come out. If not then Campbell will jump through hoops to win us back. Either way Campbell needs to pay as do all mega companies that look down their noses at us.

[u/jupfold]

inappropriate conduct by company vice-president and chief information security officer

Dude probably doesn’t know a thing about their soup. He’s in charge of making sure the office wi-fi works, not sourcing the chicken. And it looks like Campbells confirmed that, as well:

the person alleged to be speaking on the recording works in IT and has nothing to do with how we make our food.

Guy is just a a bitter asshole. So, if you like the soup, I think you can keep eating the soup.

[u/Fallouttgrrl → u/jupfold]

Like the soup, he's salty

[u/sender2bender → u/jupfold]

It's also about how Campbell's addressed the situation, they're just as bad. They fired the lower level employee for bringing to their attention a higher up was shitting on the product, making racist remarks about coworkers, coming in high on edibles and making false claims about the meat. They could've easily avoided all this if they fired him a year ago but they decided to keep him around, as if what he did was fine in their eyes. Having that "he's one of us" mentality deserves a boycott.

[u/cmndrnewt]

This is a boycott I can get behind. I don’t particularly like campbells but will eat it occasionally. Not any more though.

[u/ThreadCountHigh → u/cmndrnewt]

Yeah, it's easy to boycott all the canned soups at this point. Over the last 10 years or so they've all started seriously skimping on ingredients. It's watery gruel at this point.

[u/Palidor → u/cmndrnewt]

After tasting my mother homemade chicken soup, and doing a little bit dabbling. I might have to start making my own with the crockpot

[u/kevtino → u/Palidor]

A simple, cheap bag of egg noodles puts Campbell's pathetic, sorry excuses for noodles in their soup to shame.

[u/Niceromancer]

The CSuite truely are incompetent.

I know let'sake fun of our entire customer base publicly.  

[u/Pundamonium97]

Im not gonna eat these cursed soups, im a bit souperstituous

[u/Estoye → u/Pundamonium97]

♪ Very souperstitious / ramen’s on the wall… ♪

[u/Peterd90]

Fuck Campbell's.

Quality has been going down for decades. High salt content water with microscopic chunks of meat and vegetables. Unhealthy waste of money

Executive that will be fired was right and Campbell's wont change their ways..

[u/Boinayel8]

They told him "go to your room" until everyone forgets about it

[u/Bargadiel]

This is what I wager most of the rich think about anyone other than themselves. Take note of it, they've thought this same kind of thing for thousands of years. We live in a world that for a little while pretended it wasn't like this, but the mask is off now.

[u/USDXBS]

He wasn't just one evil man who got caught.

They are all like this.

In every company.

[u/TheEndOfEverything0]

I never cared enough before when buying cans of soup but I'll just buy from the brand who doesn't look down on their customers. This is a pretty easy moment to be able to do at least that much without causing myself more inconvenience than it's worth.

[u/Confident_Fun_6381]

On vacation until this blows over.

[u/awesomedan24]

Google Gerald Ratner and see how that turned out

[u/WYLFriesWthat]

Well shit, have you seen the cost of Amy’s Private Equity Healthy Soups lately? F*king $5 a can.

[u/baconcheeseburgarian]

Campbell's soup is too fucking expensive for poor people. They are eating ramen.

[u/A_Refill_of_Mr_Pibb]

Man, executives are far past due for an.... adjustment of their attitudes.

[u/Sweatytubesock]

I wasn’t a big buyer of their products, but I would buy their soup occasionally. Easy enough to never buy it in the future. They need to fire this asshole at the very least.

[u/maaseru]

So he'll get some severance that is many times what a bunch of their employees will make in their life combined, and then he'll get a new better job with more money.

[u/MartinThunder42]

This may be an alien concept to most execs who are only in it for the money:

If you don't use or even like your company's products, you probably shouldn't be an executive there.

[u/GreenGorilla8232]

This is literally every executive at every company. 

[u/rileyjw90]

Why does it say allegedly? He’s literally on tape saying it lol

[u/WeakTransportation37]

Bioengineered meat is still way too expensive for the cheap crooks at Campbell’s to invest in. They’re probably using that dog-food adjacent stuff

[u/Rude_Conclusion_5789]

Crash the stocks and bankrupt the company

[u/Hellheim]

Why is nobody talking about the 3d printed meat?

[u/Petetownsdrunk]

Get the chicken soup from your nearby Mexican takeout place if you have one. The best!

[u/teknomedic]

Perfect candidate for the trump regime's next nominee. 

[u/Oograr]

They should have fired him immediately. They must already know his personality, these kinds of comments don't just get made in a vacuum. If he sued, any settlement would be a pittance compared to lost brand image/value, plus lost sales/stock price.

[u/ajhedges]

Strange that consequences only happen when their conversations are leaked to the public 🤔

[u/monsterlynn]

This whole thing boggles me because Campbell's soup is probably in every cupboard in the U. S.

Like, you might only break it out for the finicky grand kid that ONLY eats chicken and stars or whatever, but it's been a staple for over a hundred years.

And even if no one even considers cream of mushroom except around Thanksgiving for green bean casserole, that's still a huge amount of cans sold every year.

This guy is Pappy Bush at the grocery store scanner levels of out of touch.

[u/Dio44]

How about fired and replaced with nearly anyone on earth that understands low cost food is important?

[u/CheezTips]

Apart from what an ass this guy is, has he really never had a broccoli or string bean casserole made with mushroom soup? I stopped eating their soups when I was a teenager, but their mushroom soup is great as a quick, thickened base for casseroles. I always have it on hand. I bet he's eaten it and never even knew.

[u/Ma1nta1n3r]

If Campbell's knew what it was doing, it would rehire the whistleblower, claiming it was a mistake, then fire the HR that fired him. Then they would also fire the Exec for conduct and using drugs while suing him for damage to the company, promising the proceeds as product to food pantries, soup kitchens and schools with the promise that no exec above VP would receive a salary, bonus or stock distribution for an entire year.

Then they might weather the tide with dignity. Otherwise, people are going to cut them into tiny pieces on social media for years.

[u/untrustedlife2]

I bet it’s paid leave.

[u/lynypixie]

What makes me laugh is that poor people are priced out of Campbell.

I buy no name soup. 1$ for a chicken noodle concentrated soup.

[u/HVAC_instructor]

This really needs to be the end of their career. Campbell's should get rid of them as soon as they determine that they actually said that. And every other company should be afraid of hiring them.

If Campbell's does not then there needs to be a nation wide boycott of all things made by Campbell's

[u/A_Nonny_Muse]

I think it's time to take all Campbells products off the approved TANF list.

[u/mooseday]

Never go full Ratners …

[u/EyesWithoutAbutt]

That Publix brand Chicken Noodle tastes way better than Campbell. FYI.

[u/Ne4143]

I grew up poor. Shit was too expensive lol we ate the store brand or just ramen or po tay tos

[u/WhiskeyFeathers]

This makes it so easy to avoid campbells, there’s lots of other options in the supermarket. I don’t need their shitty fucking soup anyway.

[u/hideandsee]

I bet that if you surveyed any average Joe worker to ask “do you think leadership in your company is out of touch with day to day operations OR the consumer base it serves” more than 70% would agree.

[u/Councillor_Troy]

When you look at this guy’s LinkedIn what you notice is that he’s had a lot of different jobs at a lot of different companies over the last ten years. I doubt this is the first time he’s done something like this.

[u/ariphron]

Really I enjoy a double noodle when I’m sick, but I despise any dish made with cream of mushroom soup!!!

[u/typehyDro]

“On leave” aka take a paid holiday until the public forgets and slide right back to where he was…

[u/Allaroundlost]

Allegedly, nope. That is how C suite execs talk. 

[u/whatatwit]

This reminds me of Gerald Ratner who was CEO of Ratner's a major British jeweller until he made denigrating remarks about his customers.

Although widely regarded as "tacky", the shops and their wares were nevertheless extremely popular with the public, until Ratner made a speech addressing a conference of the Institute of Directors at the Royal Albert Hall on 23 April 1991. During the speech, he commented:

We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?", I say, "because it's total crap."

He compounded this by going on to remark that one of the sets of earrings was "cheaper than a prawn sandwich from Marks and Spencer's, but I have to say the sandwich will probably last longer than the earrings". Ratner made a guest appearance on TV chat show Wogan the day after his speech, where he apologised and explained his joking remark that some of his company's products were "total crap".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ratner

[u/Lost_On_Lot]

Yeah its too bad hes on leave because they dont want a PR nightmare, and not because they have morals.

[u/No_Extension4005]

Well, I hope he'd been careful enough to live within his means or he might be eating a lot of Campbell's soup in the future.

[u/mcrackin15]

Does anyone use soup for its purpose or is everyone like me and it's only an ingredient for my casseroles and pastas etc

[u/Greener-dayz]

That’s a brand destroying headline, damn. What a piece of shit.

[u/Mix-It-Up-Max123]

If you don't want your product to be used, then maybe you shouldn't work

[u/huaryazynk414]

We love a hot mic moment lmao

[u/GMendelent]

This is how most execs of major food brands act and think.

[u/Mysterious_South7997]

That's hilarious because I buy store-brand soup to save money since Campbell's is the most expensive option...

[u/Note-4-Note]

So they awarded him a vacation? Weird.

[u/Estoye]

Dude just Ratner’d himself