Small Home Gazette, Winter 2021

History Brief: Round and Jolly Toddlers

“Mm! Mm! Good!” Sound famil­iar? It ought to—those words have been a Campbell Soup Company slo­gan since the 1930s. BUT prior to the slogan, the originally-named Joseph Campbell & Co. used the Campbell Kids to advertise their soups.

Campbell based his marketing on a theme of “soup means health and wholesomeness to children.” He hired Grace Drayton, a freelance illustrator of children’s books and comic strips, to draw the “Kids”—16 in all. Drayton’s chubby figures with round faces, wide eyes and pug noses were introduced in 1905 as streetcar advertisements. Each ad featured a verse, a red-and-white can, and a Campbell Kid. The pub­lic loved them.

The company was flooded with requests for copies of the ads to hang on nursery and classroom walls. As popularity grew, the Kids appeared in magazine ads plus they graced postcards, canisters, cookbooks, lunch boxes, calendars, children’s dishes and more—even dolls.

The charming Kids were instantly recognizable and could be varied in the ads but still give a uniform prod­uct message. Enjoyed by generations, Americans today consume about 2.5 million bowls of three favorites each year—Tomato Soup (introduced in 1897), and Chicken Noodle and Cream of Mushroom (1934).