Campbell’s Soup filed a lawsuit last week against a candidate running for Michigan's 13th Congressional District for trademark infringement and false endorsement. Shelby Campbell of Detroit uses the soup company’s logo and can design in campaign materials and calls her campaign “soup4change.”
The prominent soup company is accusing the defendant of capitalizing on Campbell’s Soup branding to garner campaign recognition. In court filings, the company says its customers have reached out via email and social media, asking if the company is endorsing the candidate.
Campbell’s Soup sent the defendant a cease-and-desist letter on September 2, according to the filing in U.S. District Court. In a written statement, Campbell's Soup wrote that it had "hoped to resolve this simple matter amicably."
Campbell, who is running as a Democrat, refused to stop using the Campbell's logo. Instead, she posted “Lmfao y'all gonna me blow up and win congress easily I ain’t scary byeeee” to her social media.
“I was just like, oh my gosh, I laughed and then I posted it, and I wrote ‘Big mama’ or something, making a joke because I was like, oh my gosh, really guys, I'm not that important right now,” she said.
Campbell said she’d generated the stickers using ChatGPT. She said she “thought it was cute." Her nickname has been "Shelby Soup" forever, she said.
“They want me to stop saying soup, and that’s just so obnoxious. … That’s something I won’t let them take from me.”
This is part of why she’s running for office, Campbell said.
“I am sick of the elites dictating everything.”
Lawsuit documents note the soup company’s trademarked can label is iconic, citing Andy Warhol’s established Campbell’s Soup Cans painting and the can artwork’s 150-year history.
Campbell’s Soup sued its New York rival Jane Foodie last year for “mimicking” Campbell’s trademarked soup can to sell its own soup products. The company noted in its lawsuit against Shelby Campbell that it won the case against Jane Foodie, and Campbell’s Soup only obtained “injunctive relief and no monetary damages.”
Campbell said the lawsuit filed against her “distinguishes” her situation from that case.
She said it proves her point further, “because that’s food. I’m not trying to sell food at all. I’m more of a ‘I don’t support corporations,’” Campbell said.
The Campbell's company said it has gone after other politicians "who like Defendants share Campbell’s great name" in Florida and Kansas for similar uses.
Campbell’s Soup is requesting a trial by jury. It's asking the defendant to stop using Campbell’s trademark or any similar trademark and immediately delete any material.
“Shelby Campbell’s unauthorized use copies Campbell’s famous trademark and trade dress and is a clear-cut infringement of our intellectual property rights,” the court filing said.
The attorney for Campbell's soup company, Leah R. Imbrogno, with the international law firm Foley & Lardner LLP, did not respond to requests for comment.
Shelby Campbell said she plans to represent herself in court.
