Campbell's Soup and General Hospital

Alright, alright, I admit it. I watch soaps! I have since I was a kid and I can't help it. My soap of choice is General Hospital. A few months ago during the writer's strike the scabs were doing anything they could to stall out story lines until the head writers returned to take over. During this time, they did something a little old school and advertised Campbell's Soup during their show. Soaps were built on the idea of product integration, hoping housewives would see merchandise and go out to buy it. That has essentially disappeared with modern soaps as they hope to look more like "prime time" in the "daytime". This however was full on product integration in the most blatant form.



Campbell's Soup is used as a catalyst of what might be considered a public service announcement about heart disease in women, the Go Red for Women campaign. One of the characters on the show, Epiphany, had a heart attack. She meets for the first time a group of women, who are all heart disease survivors, for lunch, wearing red to raise awareness. Campbell's Soup is their lunch of choice, all lined up in the background and on the tables as an example of a healthy food choice for heart conscious people. Everyone makes sure to call the soup by name. It's Campbell's! Not generic brand!

Since most people who watch soaps are women and that is their target demographic, it would make sense for Campbell's Soup to want to be associated with keeping women heart healthy. They get to have their product used in one of the more popular soaps for a good cause.

Personally, I hated this integration. It was so distracting on an already confusing show and was out of place, even on a soap. Instead of feeling connected to the storyline about a woman going through a dramatic health crisis, I was rolling my eyes at the way each character made sure they read their lines just right in order to properly acknowledge the soup. It was a commercial within a show, and it makes me as an avid soap viewer extremely happy that such blatant integration is mostly a thing of the past.