Campbell's Exec Under Fire After Allegedly Bashing Ingredients For Being 'Not Healthy' And 'Bioengineered'

Most of the time, when food company execs speak, they're singing their products' praises to the sky. One Campbell's executive, however, allegedly ripped off the polite mask behind closed doors, flat-out dissing the company's canned soup. The allegations get worse, however. A former Campbell Soup Company employee says vice president and chief information security officer Martin Bally also made some classist and racist remarks.

According to Detroit news station WDIV, a former employee named Robert Garza — who is suing for wrongful termination — recorded a conversation he had with Bally in 2024 in which Bally allegedly said, "I don't buy Campbell's products barely anymore. ... Bioengineered meat — I don't wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3-D printer." (While Campbell's soups contain some GMO products, it's important to keep in mind that the most extreme critics of GMOs often know the least about science.) Where things really got problematic, though, was when the VP allegedly described the soup as "s–t for f**king poor people." 

As if bashing the product and customers weren't enough, Bally may have dug himself an even deeper hole by allegedly insulting an entire ethnic group. Garza is accusing Bally of calling Campbell's Indian employees "idiots" and saying they were incapable of thinking for themselves. The former Campbell's employee says Bally also admitted to coming to work high on marijuana on numerous occasions.

The latest Campbell's soup controversy involves an employee who lives in Monroe, Michigan, but worked remotely as a security analyst at the New Jersey headquarters. Robert Garza said he recorded Martin Bally's diatribe when he met with him to discuss Garza's salary, and he was within his rights to do so under Michigan law. (Bally is based in the Detroit area.) Garza claims that after he alerted his supervisor to the conversation, he was fired from his position with Campbell's. As a result of this lawsuit, the details have now become public, and the soup is hitting the fan on social media.

One TikToker posted about this hot news topic, declaring that they'd never eat any Campbell's soup flavors again. The video has received over 13,000 comments so far, many of them promising to join the boycott. On Reddit and Threads, there have been other calls to boycott the company, though this controversy doesn't seem to have developed into a full-fledged campaign just yet.

In the meantime, Campbell's issued a company statement on the lawsuit, noting that "if the comments heard on the audio recording were in fact made by Mr. Bally, they are unacceptable. Such language does not reflect our values and the culture of our company." The statement also said Campbell's uses high-quality ingredients and that the comments about the brand's food are "not only inaccurate — they are patently absurd." According to Campbell's, Bally has been placed on temporary leave while an investigation is conducted.