Kid Cuisine

Kid Cuisine is an American brand of packaged frozen meals, marketed by Conagra Foods,[1] created in 1990.[2] Described as a "frozen food version of a Happy Meal",[3] the product is marketed towards children, while assuring parents of nutritional benefits. The mascot of the brand is a penguin named K.C. (short for "Kid Cuisine"),[4] while the former was a different penguin named B.J. and a polar bear named "The Chef".[5]

Kid Cuisine
IndustryFrozen dinner
Founded1990 (1990)
Area served
United States
ParentConAgra
Websitekidcuisine.com

Nutrition and marketing techniques

Kid Cuisine is what its own marketing agency in the 2000s described as a "kid-driven request item", that is, children would ask their parents to buy these items.[6] Advertisements for Kid Cuisine were consciously aimed at the child, which was urged to request their mothers or parental guardians to buy these items, especially in the upper range of the 3-10 year old range the brand aimed at.[7]

Kid Cuisine relies on advertising with TV and movie characters, including The Avengers, Frozen, and SpongeBob SquarePants; the company also had a "Hello Kitty" chicken nugget dinner.[3]

Most Kid Cuisine meals have been attested historically to be composed of three or four foods, including some with desserts like cakes, smoothies, cookies, brownies, and pudding, which has color-changing sprinkles. The other foods included are burgers, french fries, tacos, hot dogs, corn dogs, chicken nuggets and drumsticks, macaroni and cheese, fish sticks, pizza, vegetables such as corn, fruit snacks, spaghetti, and occasionally breakfast foods like pancakes, sausages, berry toppings and tater tots as well as fruit cups.

Between April 26, 2022 and June 11, 2022, Kid Cuisine changed their logo and mascot to a simpler logo, and K.C. is now a more realistic penguin rather than the cartoon.[4]

Criticism

The foods sold under the brand often have what Bettina Elias Siegel, author of Kid Food, called "nutritionally questionable combos", including "cheeseburgers or mac and cheese served with corn and gummy candy, [sic] chicken nuggets served with French fries and pudding", inter alia. By 2010, such foods were increasingly questioned as the obesity epidemic took center stage, and Conagra developed a new marketing technique to keep convincing mothers to buy these products for their children. With the slogan "The more you know, the less you 'no'", they attempted to convince mothers that Kid Cuisine did actually provide nutritional foods that mothers would not have to say "no" to. But "good reasons" to say "yes" were, according to Siegel, very weak, and included assurances about some of the meals containing minerals and vitamins, and "minor nutritional tweaks" like using whole grain flour for the breading of chicken nuggets. In addition, the brand changed its mascots, ran an ad campaign aimed directly at children, which included games where children could sign up and win prizes. 20,000 children signed up online in 17 days, and many came back again and again to play branded games. The dual strategy that, according to Siegel, is at work here, targets parents and children: parents' "nutritional vigilance" is eroded, while children are encouraged to demand "unhealthy" products.[6]

Meals

Kid Cuisine meals that are still known to be produced, as of 2023:

  • All-Star Nuggets
  • Popcorn Chicken
  • Mini Corn Dogs
  • Level Up Dino Nuggets
  • Level Up Cheese Quesadillas
  • Level Up Mac & Cheese Bites
  • Subinka Sub-Sandwiches

References
  1. Kraak, Vivica I.; Gootman, Jennifer Appleton; McGinnis, J. Michael, eds. (2006). Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?. National Academies Press. p. 183. ISBN 9780309097130.
  2. Cahn, Lauren (September 10, 2020). "23 Classic TV Dinners Everyone Loved". Eat This, Not That. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  3. Farthing, Jessica (December 29, 2020). "15 Frozen Food Facts You Never Knew". Eat This, Not That. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  4. "Our Story | Kid Cuisine". www.kidcuisine.com. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
  5. Gallup, Kate Hagan (2020-09-22). "The Real Reason Kid Cuisine Changed Mascots". Mashed. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
  6. Siegel, Bettina Elias (2019). Kid Food: The Challenge of Feeding Children in a Highly Processed World. Oxford University Press. pp. 67–68. ISBN 9780190862121.
  7. Coffey, Timothy J.; Siegel, David L.; Livingston, Gregory (2006). Marketing to the New Super Consumer: Mom & Kid. Paramount Market Publishing. pp. 56–58, 162–163. ISBN 9780976697329.
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