While on the way in to work this morning, I caught the tail end of a radio news item about a product recall of Campbell's Chunky soup.  Since I frequently wind up cooking for "just me," my pantry is stocked with enough Campbell's soup to outfit a small convenience store.  And though the report didn't give any details, being the internet-savvy geek that I am, I knew it'd be a cinch to find complete details on the Campbell's website.  Silly me!


Campbell Soup maintains a site specifically for its Chunky varieties at www.chunky.com (duh!). It's even listed on the can. So, fire up the ole browser, and...

Urg. Not very much there (wonder if it's one of those @$&*?%! Flash pages). Sigh.

At least there are a few links. None for "recalls," but one of them is "legal." Product recalls are legal issues, aren't they? Let's see...

Well, at least we've got a readable page. Scroll, scroll, scroll...

Lots of conditions and disclaimers here: Use of site material for personal, noncommercial use. Ownership of intellectual property. Use at your own risk. No warranty. United States only. Don't give us any ideas.^[1] New Jersey law applies.^[2]

Nothing about product recalls.

Okay, where next? Well, there's a "Media Relations" link in the sidebar... "Click." Whoops, that's just a list of press offices: Corporate Information, U.S. Soup Division brands, Food and Beverage brands, food and nutrition initiatives, community programs, Pepperidge Farm corporate. Addresses, phone numbers, and emails.

I suppose I could call the folks at the U.S. Soup Division office... naw, there has to be something on the site. How about the home page? "Our Company Home" - "click."

Well, let's see, nothing obvious. Here's a "Most Recent Press Release." October 4, good. Nope, it's "Campbell Announces New Alignment for North American Business."^[3] Webcasts, stock price. Nothing here.

Let's try one more thing. If I mouse over the red "Welcome" link at the right end of the menubar, it reveals three javascript submenus. One of them is "What's New."^[4] "Click!"

Scroll down, scroll up... Dearie me. The recall doesn't seem to be new enough to make the "What's New" page.

Oh, the hell with it. Google to the rescue:

And there it is, on the Food and Drug Administration's site:^[5]

And NOW I know that I want to check any Baked Potato with Cheddar & Bacon Bits for the can code "July 8 2009 •BZ• 07097". Okay.

-o-o-0-o-o-

I got my answer, but there's still a question. Is that press release anywhere on Campbell's site? The answer is "yes," and I later discovered two different ways to get to it.

The first way: It turns out that the campbellsoup.com site has two "home" pages: There's the "Our Company Home" page that I show above (http://www.campbellsoupcompany.com/index.asp). Remember that I got to it from the "Media Relations" page.^[6] But if you type "campbellsoup.com" into your browser (or if you click on the red "Welcome" link without using any of its javascript submenus), you get this "home" page (http://www.campbellsoup.com/default.aspx):

There's the recall notice-- down in the lower right-hand corner. But you have to scroll down to see it. Oops!

The second way: Remember that "Most Recent Press Release" back on the "Our Company" page? Below it is a link labeled "Additional Releases." What if I try that? Well, lookie here:

Note that it is dated today. The previous page's "most recent" release is dated yesterday. Hmmm... didn't get updated!

-o-o-0-o-o-

When I started assembling this post, the story looked like it was going to be about how a major company like Campbell's Soup could have a product recall and still avoid mentioning it on its website. It turned out things were not that sinister, but it still is a good lesson on the problems of web design. Because despite being reasonably web-savvy, I couldn't find the recall notice on the first try. Well, I'd started in the wrong place. And I didn't realize there were two different "home" pages. And I didn't dig to the next level by clicking the "Additional Releases" link. But none of that matters.

Not everybody enters your site from the home page. Not everybody scrolls. And not everybody can second-guess what the designer did, or figure out ways around stuff that is obsolete. So beware!

Posted by: Old Grouch in Rants at 00:00:41 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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