Taste of Latinum, Taste of GOLD [condensed soup edition]

  • May 22, 2023
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Is that the way it is? The Diary of Lupin Pooter

The easiest (or laziest) way of advertising in this corner of the globe is to operate on the basis that local consumers are real-world equivalents of Ferengi route and strongly insinuate that the product being hawked, whatever it may be, is associated with the rapid accumulation of vast wealth.

For the first time, I’m seeing it used to push condensed soup. Frankly, it strikes me as a bit of a stretch. Then again, as a foreign barbarian, I’m not actually the target market.

English-language text on a new cardboard advertising display at the entrance to a nearby ParknShop supermarket reads, The GOLD LABEL, Campbell’s, and TASTE OF GOLD printed in gold on a billowy green satin fabric background, featuring golden spoons, each filled with one of two new pudding-consistency creamy condensed soups, and then photos of corresponding the (as-promised) gold-labelled cans beneath the spoons.

Cardboard advertising display for some new Campbell's condensed soups at a local ParknShop store entrance, featuring gold text, partially lustrous gold on the sop cans labels, and golden spoons.
Cardboard advertising display for some new Campbell’s condensed soups at a local ParknShop store entrance, featuring gold text, partially lustrous gold on the sop cans labels, and golden spoons.

Ladies and gentlemen, Crab Chowder and Cream of Assorted Mushroom with Beetroot have hit the shelves.

Chopped-up higher-res view of the same sign (click for a larger version).
Chopped-up higher-res view of the same sign (click for a larger version).

In our household, we’re infrequent consumers of condensed soup. Last month, however, when both S. and I finally popped our covid cherries, we would have liked to have some good ol’ Campbell’s chicken noodle soup in the pantry. To our mild surprise, we discovered that chicken noodle soup vanished from local store shelves at some point in recent years and had to purchase it online from a small seller who, for all we know, is getting relatives in the USA to buy it retail and ship it over here.