Universally known as one of the few foods that kids will actually eat, blue boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese are a familiar sight in family pantries around the country. But now, after 85 years, the neon orange noodle is getting a new name — and it’s one that most kids already use.
The name is going the way of KFC, Dunkin’, and HuffPost: Macaroni & Cheese will be shortened to Mac & Cheese.
The company announced the change this week, while the rebrand will roll out on social media later this summer. The new boxes will hit stores in August.
The reason for the change? The company says that they want to align the food with how consumers actually talk about it in their lives — and they want to make the iconic cheesy noodle even more comforting.
“We know that people aren’t turning to comfort food as a guilty pleasure, they are positively embracing comfort, saying yes to feeling good, saying yes to caring for themselves,” said Victoria Lee, brand manager for Kraft Mac & Cheese. “There is a familiar, craveable, positive comfort to Kraft Mac & Cheese that makes it so special and iconic to millions of people across the world and our new look is a reflection of what our brand means to our consumers.”
The old Kraft Mac & Cheese box is also getting a makeover that will simplify its look.
The old Kraft Macaroni & Cheese box design.
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
The blue gradient will be replaced with an all-over deep blue color, while much of the box’s clutter will be removed to focus on a single noodle, dripping with cheese and turned up in a smile.
The name shortening and box decluttering both call out a wider trend among brands where simplification means a bolder look as well as a look that’s more easily viewable on tablets and phones.
Over a million boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese are sold every day, which translated to $23.7 billion in organic net sales last year — and represents lots and lots and lots of parents giving up on making dinner for the night. Like many other foods, the entire Kraft Mac & Cheese line has seen significant price hikes in recent months, which the company says is due to the rising cost of production.
