In La Belle Province, it is a love that cannot speak it name.
A Quebec-based campaign from Kraft Canada acknowledges Kraft Dinner’s reputation throughout the province as a guilty pleasure. The adult-focused campaign from Taxi and MediaVest runs through August. It features TV, print and out-of-home (a mixture of TSAs, billboards and cinema).
Jordan Fietje, the brand’s director of marketing, said that while Quebecers are loyal to Kraft Dinner, they are not as willing as people in the rest of Canada to express their feelings.
“It is a closeted love,” said Fietje. “The hope is that by enjoying a joke with our fans in Quebec, [they] will feel free to declare their love for Kraft Dinner.”
Fietje said that for many Quebecers, Kraft Dinner evokes memories of being a student on a tight budget, and for others it is perceived as being easy to make. “The feeling is that now, as a working adult, they should be eating food that takes longer to make and costs more,” said Fietje. “But they still love that Kraft Dinner taste.”
A series of transit shelter ads feature images of satisfied-looking people, with their eyes obscured by boxes of Kraft Dinner. All of the ads feature the tagline “Coupable d-être bon” (“Guilty of being good”). A series of magazine ads also use Quebec TV personality Dany Turcotte.
The campaign also featured a vending machine that mimicked the regular outdoor creative, but invited people to lift the box of Kraft Dinner obscuring the person’s eyes. When they did, the machine dispensed a free box of Kraft Dinner.
A 30-second TV spot shows a man enjoying a meal of Kraft Dinner in his luxurious home. However, when he throws out the garbage, he nervously moves the empty Kraft Dinner box to his neighbour’s recycling bin.
The campaign objective is to drive development of the macaroni and cheese category in Quebec, bringing it up to levels seen in other provinces said Fietje.
While he wouldn’t disclose numbers, Feitje said that Kraft Dinner sales have been growing “quite steadily” in Quebec in recent years. “While some other boxed meal products are declining, Kraft Dinner is growing household penetration and share within the dry packaged dinner category,” he said.
