Campbell’s Company announced Wednesday it had terminated a senior executive after reviewing an audio recording in which he made what the company called “vulgar, offensive and false” remarks, including comments suggesting that its products were made for “poor people.” The firing came after a lawsuit filed last week alleging that the executive retaliated against an employee who reported the crude comments.
The complaint, filed in Michigan by former employee Robert Garza, accused Martin Bally, Campbell’s vice president of information technology, of mocking low-income consumers and making a range of disparaging statements about Campbell’s food. Garza said he was fired just weeks after notifying his manager about the conversation, and he is now alleging retaliation.
Campbell’s said it moved swiftly once it became aware of the lawsuit and listened to segments of the recording provided by Garza. “The company learned of the litigation and first heard segments of the audio on November 20, 2025. Neither Mr. Garza nor his lawyer ever notified us of the existence of an audio recording,” the company said. “After a review, we believe the voice on the recording is in fact Martin Bally.”
The recording captured Bally making vulgar remarks and suggesting he avoided Campbell’s food. “Who buys our s—?” he said at one point. He went on to claim, “I don’t buy Campbell’s products barely anymore. It’s not healthy now that I know what the f— is in it,” adding that he did not want to eat “bioengineered meat” or chicken “from a 3D printer.”
Garza said he recorded the conversation because he sensed that “something wasn’t right with Martin.” He alleged the conversation began as a discussion about his salary before Bally drifted into attacking the company’s products and its consumer base. “[Bally] has no filter,” Garza told a Detroit outlet. “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.”
Campbell’s placed Bally on leave while conducting an internal investigation before ultimately firing him on November 25. “The comments were vulgar, offensive and false, and we apologize for the hurt they have caused,” Campbell’s said Wednesday. “This behavior does not reflect our values and the culture of our company, and we will not tolerate that kind of language under any circumstances.”
The company also forcefully pushed back on Bally’s claims about its food products, calling them “absurd.” In its statement, Campbell’s defended the quality and safety of its ingredients. “We are proud of the food we make, the people who make it and the high-quality ingredients we use to provide consumers with good food at a good value. The comments heard on the recording about our food are not only inaccurate—they are patently absurd.”
Campbell’s noted that “the chicken meat in our soups comes from long-trusted, USDA approved U.S. suppliers” and meets the company’s strict quality standards. “All our soups are made with No Antibiotics Ever chicken meat. Any claims to the contrary are completely false,” the statement concluded.
The firing underscores the company’s effort to distance itself from an executive whose remarks not only disparaged its customers but spread baseless claims about the very products he was hired to help support.
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