M’m! M’m! Bad! Campbell’s Soup sues Michigan congressional hopeful for false endorsement

A little-known candidate for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District is being sued over her use of a design similar to the Campbell’s Soup logo in campaign materials.

The Camden, N.J.-based Campbell’s Co. and the Campbell’s Soup Co. Brands LP filed the complaint Friday in Michigan’s Eastern District against Democratic congressional candidate Shelby Campbell of Detroit. In the filing, the corporation claims Campbell’s unauthorized use of its logo and refusal to stop was trademark infringement, false designation of origin and false endorsement.

Campbell, 31, told The Detroit News Sunday she has always felt a connection to the soup brand and thought her use of the logo for a single batch of stickers was harmless.

“Growing up, we had the whole house decorated with Campbell’s Soup logos,” said Campbell, a third-generation automotive worker. “I’ve used ‘soup’ in my email and social media since I was 18.”

The attorney for Campbell’s Soup Co., Leah Imbrogno with Detroit-based Foley & Lardner LLP, could not be immediately reached Sunday for comment.

Campbell’s Soup Co. said Shelby Campbell’s intentional use of the logo was not approved and has led to confusion with customers who’ve reached out to ask if the company had endorsed her. It was clear, the lawsuit said, that her use of the logo was a way to use the Campbell brand to boost her candidacy.

As of Friday, when the complaint was filed, her campaign’s X account was “soup4change” and used the logo as a header, her campaign’s website address was www.soup4change.com, her TikTok account was “@atasteofsoup” and her Instagram account was “@atasteofthesoup.” The campaign used hashtags such as “vote4soup” or “soup4change.”

Shelby Campbell did clearly mark her TikTok and Instagram profiles that used “soup” in the name as personal profiles, and her biography pointed people to follow her professional profile “@shelby4congress,” according to a Detroit News review.

Campbell Soup Co. said in the lawsuit it was committed to protecting its brand from those who would “infringe or dilute” the trademark. The company pointed to similar lawsuits filed, including one against Jane Foodie LLC for selling packaged soups in cans with a design that mimicked Campbell’s Soup cans and various political candidates across the country with the last name of Campbell who used the logo in their campaign materials.

Campbell admitted to using stickers with a similar design to the company’s logo, but claimed she only made one batch of them and was not making a profit off of them.

In the lawsuit, the company asked Shelby Campbell to stop using the design over a month before filing the complaint. She refused to and said she understood her use was not breaking the law. She posted her response to the company on her private social media page, writing “Lmfao yall gonna make me blow up and really win congress easily I ain’t scared byeeee,” a screenshot included in the complaint shows.

It’s not clear where Campbell’s Soup Co. got screenshots of Campbell’s social media pages. But Shelby Campbell said that after the comments she made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death, she knew “MAGAs” — people backing the Make America Great Again movement — were watching her feeds and assumed they sent the posts to the company.

Campbell said she wasn’t sure if she’d continue using a similar logo but said she might just “change it to blue.”

Shelby Campbell is not a well-known name in the 2026 Democratic primary for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, where state Rep. Donovan McKinney of Detroit is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar of Detroit. The field of well-known Democrats narrowed when former state Sen. Adam Hollier decided to bow out of the primary and run instead for Secretary of State. Nazmul Hassan is also running in the Democratic primary, while Republican Andrew Lorenz and Green Party candidate D. Etta Wilcoxon have filed paperwork to run.

“I’m really excited for the campaign otherwise,” Campbell said. “I want girls to know that just because they may have made bad decisions in the past they can have a great future.”

satwood@detroitnews.com