• Brandweek , Thursday, September 25, 2008 10:16 AM

It's been a while since we've seen a dispatch from the front lines of the soup wars, but things are apparently heating up. An ad in the Sept. 24 issue of The New York Times shows a can of General Mills' Progresso Traditional Chicken Noodle with the caption, "Made With MSG." The facing page shows new Campbell's Select Harvest Chicken with Egg Noodle with the headline: "Made With TLC."

General Mills' Progresso Light soups were a big hit in 2007, in part because of a Weight Watchers endorsement that gave the line a zero-point rating. Instead of focusing on lower calories, Campbell stresses that its Select Harvest soups are natural, contain no artificial flavors and no MSG.

TV ads relay the same message. One spot shows a blindfolded woman tasting two bowls of soup. She digs into the Progresso and says, "Hydrolized vegetable protein. And MSG." She then samples the bowl of Campbell soup. "Chicken!" she proclaims. "One hundred percent natural ... white meat."

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