How Kraft Reacted To Controversial 'Send Noods' Backlash

Kraft Mac & Cheese’s “send noods” campaign vanished almost as quickly as it started as a series of parents called out the macaroni and cheese maker for its play on words reference to “send nudes.”

Parents took to social media to criticize Kraft for making the reference to “send nudes” with their “send noods” campaign, which asked followers to send pictures of their noodles to the company as well as their friends and family.

Kraft, which labels itself as a family brand, took down the promotion from social media, acknowledging the confusion by saying, “For National Noodle Day last Tuesday, we encouraged adults to send free noodles to loved one to provide comfort and make them smile. The social promotion resulted in over 20,000 consumers across the country receiving boxes of America’s favorites Kraft Mac and Cheese. We sincerely appreciate and hear all of your feedback. The content will be removed from our channels.”

The promotion from The Kraft-Heinz Company (KHC) centered around National Noodle Day on Oct. 6. The campaign asked customers to reach out to their friends and families with a “nood” pic. But many parents said the promotion “sexualized mac ‘n’ cheese” and acted “predatory” towards children, BuzzFeed reported.

The hashtags #BoycottKraft and #CancelKraft also circulated social media, and a Change.org petition, which had over 450 signatures as of Wednesday morning, was started, AdAge reported.

To kick off the campaign, Kraft tapped “Saturday Night Live” star Vanessa Bayer to speak about the promotion in a video, where she said send “noods” not “nudes,” AdAge said. Despite Bayer’s clarification, backlash against Kraft ensued.

However, the “send noods” campaign seemed to spark interest among many social media users as Kraft promised to send boxes of mac and cheese or coupons to the first 7,000 that responded on Twitter with the hashtag #SendNoods and #Giveaway or signed on its enjoynoods.com website.

Both the social media posts and the website were taken down as of Monday, AdAge said.

Shares of Kraft-Heinz were trading at $32.45 as of 11:35 p.m. EDT, up 4 cents of 0.12%.