Campbell Soup exec caught on secret recording slamming product, people who buy it
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Posted on 11/23/2025 10:38:16 AM PST by TigerClaws
MONROE, Mich. – An executive with Campbell Soup Company was caught on a secret recording slamming the company’s product and belittling the people who buy it.
Local 4 spoke to a former employee at Campbell’s, Robert Garza, of Monroe. Garza said he was fired after he complained about Vice President Martin Bally.
“He has no filter,” Garza said. “He thinks he’s a C-level executive at a Fortune 500 company and he can do whatever he wants because he’s an executive.”
Garza said he recorded an hour-long rant by the top Campbell Soup Company executive because he said he trusted his “instinct that something wasn’t right with Martin,” when he went to meet with him to discuss his salary. Instead, he said he sat at a restaurant and listened to an explosive, hour-long tirade. He recorded all of it.
Garza is now suing the company -- alleging racist remarks, admissions of drug use at work and retaliation after he tried to report it. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Wayne County Circuit Court and names Campbell Soup Company, vice president and chief information security officer Martin Bally, and supervisor J.D. Aupperle as defendants.
Garza told Local 4 he began working remotely as a security analyst in September 2024 for the company’s Camden, New Jersey headquarters.
In the lawsuit, Garza alleges Bally said Campbell’s makes “highly processed food” for “poor people” and made several derogatory comments about Indian employees, calling them “idiots.”
“We have s--t for f**king poor people. Who buys our s--t? I don’t buy Campbell’s products barely anymore. It’s not healthy now that I know what the f---‘s in it,” part of the recording said. “Bioengineered meat -- I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3-D printer.”
The recording lasted longer than an hour and 15 minutes and included what Garza said was a “disgusting” rant about his coworkers.
“F---ing Indians don’t know a f---ing thing,” the recording said. “Like they couldn’t think for their f---ing selves,” it said in part.
Garza said he felt sick, “pure disgust,” after the meeting, and again after hearing the rant.
Garza also said Bally admitted he often came to work high from marijuana edibles -- another claim included in the filing.
Garza kept the recordings to himself at first. In January 2025, he said went to his direct supervisor, Aupperle, to report what he’d heard.
Garza’s attorney, Zachary Runyan, said Garza was blindsided 20 days later.
“He reached out to his supervisor and told the supervisor what Martin was saying, and then out of nowhere, my client was fired,” Runyan said. “He was really sticking up for other people. He went to his boss and said, ‘Martin is saying this about Indian coworkers we have, he’s saying this about people who buy our food -- who keep our company open, and I don’t think that should be allowed.’ And the response to Robert sticking up for other people is he gets fired, which is ridiculous.”
Garza said the termination was shocking to understand -- especially because he said Bally had praised his performance during that same meeting.
“He had never had any disciplinary action, they had never written him up for work performance,” Runyan said.
The lawsuit claims Garza was fired Jan. 30, 2025, in retaliation for raising concerns about Bally’s behavior, and accuses the company of maintaining a racially hostile work environment.
Garza said he received no follow-up from Human Resources or Campbell’s. He said it took him 10 months to find another job -- and he calls the way the company handled everything “simply terrible.”
“They have a motto: ‘We treat you like family here at Campbell‘s -- come work for us,’” Garza said. “‘We treat our employees like family.’ That’s not the case.”
Campbell Soup Company provided a statement late Thursday, saying, “If accurate, the comments in the recording are unacceptable. They do not reflect our values and the culture of our company. We are actively investigating this matter.”
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Michigan; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: berkshirehathaway; camden; campbellsoup; food; india; jdaupperle; marijuanaedibles; martinbally; michigan; monroe; newjersey; robertgarza; waynecounty; zacharyrunyan
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1 posted on 11/23/2025 10:38:16 AM PST by TigerClaws
To: TigerClaws
As a sometime Campbell shareholder, I gotta say this exec needs to be working at a company whose product he doesn’t consider beneath him.
2 posted on 11/23/2025 10:43:58 AM PST by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room)
To: TigerClaws
‘We treat our employees like family.’
Some families are quite dysfunctional.
3 posted on 11/23/2025 10:46:35 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (It's like somebody just put the Constitution up on a wall …. and shot the First Amendment -Mike Rowe)
To: TigerClaws
4 posted on 11/23/2025 10:47:52 AM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
To: Harmless Teddy Bear
5 posted on 11/23/2025 10:48:13 AM PST by SpaceBar
“Bioengineered meat — I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3-D printer.”
Can’t argue with that.
6 posted on 11/23/2025 10:48:17 AM PST by proust (All posts made under this handle are, for the intents and purposes of the author, considered satire.)
To: TigerClaws
“We have s—t for f**king poor people. Who buys our s—t? I don’t buy Campbell’s products barely anymore. It’s not healthy now that I know what the f-—‘s in it,” part of the recording said. “Bioengineered meat — I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3-D printer.” I don’t either Martin, maybe I should go with Progresso Soup?
7 posted on 11/23/2025 10:48:24 AM PST by kawhill (What is it you want of me? I can't hear you. )
To: Zhang Fei
Brings to mind the woman running for Nashville mayor and how she HATES everything Nashville - won’t matter.
To: TigerClaws
Did Garza tell Bally he was recording him in their meeting at the restaurant? If not, that was probably the biggest reason for the termination.
9 posted on 11/23/2025 10:49:20 AM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
To: kawhill
Check the sodium on Pr*gresso soup. Horrible. Even the ‘low sodium’ is terrible.
To: Zhang Fei
11 posted on 11/23/2025 10:50:59 AM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
To: TigerClaws
So it’s not 3D-printed, bioengineered “chicken” in their soups?
12 posted on 11/23/2025 10:51:30 AM PST by 9YearLurker
To: TigerClaws
Sometimes, even if you’re criticism is correct, the company will defend and protect the hierarchy before you.
You will most likely be thrown into the volcanoes of incineration; sued for breech of professional privacy or you will be ignored and allowed to perish or over the side to the depths of unemployment and uninsured status.
They better pay attention though, to the fact that this guy Bally openly admits to coming to work as high as a kite.
13 posted on 11/23/2025 10:51:51 AM PST by lee martell
To: Harmless Teddy Bear
Some families are quite dysfunctional.
Very true. I would have bet on Progresso to be the dysfunctional family.
14 posted on 11/23/2025 10:52:23 AM PST by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
To: Cowgirl of Justice
Not mayor. She’s running in the 7th District special election to the US House.
Mark Green quit. She will lose badly.
15 posted on 11/23/2025 10:52:46 AM PST by Fledermaus ("It turns out all we really needed was a new President!")
To: DoodleBob
Considering they were in a restaurant (public location) and the person doing the recording was part of the conversation, Campbell does not have any legal grounds to stand on.
I am sure that will not stop the lawyers from claiming they do. After all their only goal is billable hours.
16 posted on 11/23/2025 10:53:02 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (It's like somebody just put the Constitution up on a wall …. and shot the First Amendment -Mike Rowe)
To: TigerClaws
We have a problem with Indian workers in this county.
When they get into management, they only hire other Indians.
The think Americans are all stupid.
The H1B program should be cancelled.
17 posted on 11/23/2025 10:53:03 AM PST by Mr. K (no i think 10%consequence of repealing obamacare is worse than obamacare itself.)
To: TigerClaws
Haven’t eaten Campbell soup since I tried Progresso
18 posted on 11/23/2025 10:54:07 AM PST by daku
To: TigerClaws
As a VP, Bally is in a strong position to help create a product he can be proud of. But being indiscreet with a subordinate doesn’t speak well to his abilities as an information security officer or lead executive.
19 posted on 11/23/2025 10:56:23 AM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
To: Harmless Teddy Bear
I’m not a lawyer but I agree with you - the boss blabbed in public and that likely lessens the consent requirement.
As I posted elsewhere, the boss was their Chief Information Security Officer. Aside from the reprehensible nature of the comments, the fact that the CISO is saying this nonsense IN PUBLIC should get him fired.
20 posted on 11/23/2025 10:57:10 AM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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