Cans of vegetable Campbell's Condensed Soup are stocked on a shelf at a grocery store in Phoenix, Arizona, February 22, 2010.
REUTERS/Joshua Lott
The Campbell's Soup Company has decided to start labeling its products that contain genetically modified ingredients, a.k.a. GMOs, including its iconic cans of chicken noodle.

While this at first may seem like it could be a disaster for sales, since so many people are anti-GMO these days, the move could actually be a genius marketing ploy: Campbell's gets a chance stand above the fray in the eyes of a public increasingly wary of GMOs — but it also gets to shape the message.

GMOs typically refer to plants that scientists have deliberately altered the genome of using scientific DNA modifying techniques in a lab. While the concern over GMOs is growing in the general public, a majority of scientists agree that they are safe.

And the company is very clear that it isn't removing GMOs from its products. It does make some organic foods that don't contain these ingredients, but The New York Times reported that three-quarters of the company's products have corn, canola, soybeans or sugar beets in them — almost all of which are GMOs in the US.

What the new label will look like.
Campbell's Soup

This website, created by the company last year, explains its support for GMOs and the science backing their safety. It includes information on the ingredients in its products, and how it makes them.


This is a message that's scientifically supported. Perhaps people who visit the site after seeing the label because they are concerned about GMOs will start to understand that the science says they are safe.

But the really shrewd move Campbell's is making here is with all of the other information on The GMO labels may get consumers on the site, but once they're there, the Campbell's uses it as an opportunity to tout other aspects of the company.

For example, the site talks about how "more than 75% of the produce we buy is from the U.S.," and points out that "we employ around 4,000 people at the locations where we make our products" in the US. It even mentions that its steel cans are recycled and "environmentally sustainable."

Campbell's also addresses some issues that it's received criticism or concern from consumers for in the past, including high fructose corn syrup, gluten, artificial coloring, BPA, and MSG.

Maybe by luring consumers to the site to learn about its use of GMOs, the company will educate people about other common nutrition misconceptions (like the never-proven idea that MSG is harmful) — and also get a chance to cast itself in an overall good light, even when it does not deserve it.

Campbell's has a wide variety of foods, some better than others, but — GMO or not —something like a soup with 24 grams of sugar is not generally part of a healthy diet.