515. CONTINENTAL NOODLE SOUP: The 1st Instant Noodle Soup in Packs, ca. 1950s-60, Print Ads

Before the advent of instant noodle soups in packs like Lucky Me, Maggi, Payless and Nissin’s, a noodle brand in foil packs has been satisfying Filipinos since the late 1950s: CONTINENTAL NOODLE SOUP, developed by Lipton, and distributed locally by the Philippine Refining Company (now Unilever).

When first sold, the brand was simply called Continental Noodle Soup, a dehydrated soup mix that cooked in 7 minutes. The first flavor was the classic Chicken Noodle Soup, made from noodles and chicken flavorings—a far cry from today’s noodles that cook in 2 minutes, available in a range of flavors from your basic chicken and beef to pancit canton, lomi, mami, even Thai and Korean spicy flavors.

Lipton's entry into the soup market is believed to have begun in the early 1950s with test campaigns for Continental Noodle Soup mix. The company also produced other dehydrated soup varieties, including onion soup mix, by the mid-1940s

At 45 centavos per pack, Continental Noodle Soups were expensive, but the copy claims that a pack is good for 4 servings. A sick child was usually served this soup treat, as chicken soup then, as now, a  it was sastisfying, warming, and comforting.

The first advertising were black and white print ads with clip art illustrations. By 1960, the ads, designed by PRC’s ad agency, were hand-illustrated and in full color. In 1964, Continental Noodle Soup was re-branded to the shorter ROYCO Noodle Soup (a coined term for ROYal + COntinental), and this brand name was used in other Asian and African countries. 

The new ROYCO name caught on with Filipino consumers and became a familiar household brand, until the late 70s when the more convenient plastic-packed oriental noodles were launched, displacing ROYCO.