Glass marbles made Campbell's soup look hearty — the FTC charged deception

Campbell's soup commercials looked hearty because of a trick at BBDO: the agency's art director placed a layer of glass marbles in the bottom of each bowl, so the vegetables floated up into a dense, appetizing raft on camera. What viewers saw as the soup's character was staging — the marbles displaced broth so produce appeared far more plentiful than in the can.

The FTC charged Campbell's in March 1969. Five law students, calling themselves SOUP — Students Opposing Unfair Practices — petitioned the Commission to demand corrective advertising telling consumers the soup was not as hearty as shown: one of the first citizen interventions in an FTC case. Campbell's settled with a consent agreement in 1970, and after the company stopped using marbles the Commission closed the proceeding in 1972.

The marbles case, alongside the Colgate mock-up decision, drew the line food advertising still observes: styling that manufactures an attribute the product lacks is deception, and citizens can force an agency to act when it hesitates.