Franco-American (Campbell's)
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- This article is about the food company and brand. For Franco-Americans (i.e., Americans of French descent) see French American.
Franco-American is a brand name of the Campbell Soup Company.
The original Franco-American Food Company was founded by Alphonse Biardot, who immigrated to the United States from France in 1880. In 1886, he and his two sons opened a commercial kitchen in Jersey City, New Jersey, featuring the foods of his native country. The company proved a success, particularly with its line of canned soup and pasta, and it was acquired by Campbell's in 1915.
The Franco-American name was phased out over the next two decades for soup products and in the late-1990s for pasta products. On November 18, 2004, Campbell's announced it was discontinuing the name for pasta products in favor of its own, "to boost sales of what had been Franco-American's canned SpaghettiOs, RavioliOs and regular spaghetti, along with beef, chicken and turkey gravy varieties sold in cans and jars."
The most famous product sold under the Franco-American brand was incontestably SpaghettiOs, first sold May 16, 1965. SpaghettiOs are variously-sized rings of cooked pasta in a sweet tomato and cheese sauce, sold in cans. According to one account, Campbell's food chemist Ralph Miller was inspired by a signature dish of the company chef, sliced elbow macaroni in a soupy tomato sauce. "Uh-oh, SpaghettiOs," the refrain of the product's advertising jingle, became a meme in its own right.
As of 2008, the Campbell Soup Company continues to sell gravy under the Franco-American name[1], along with a small line of condensed soups that appear to be similar to soups sold under the Campbell's brand.
