Though my relationship with Kraft Mac and Cheese began in the ’90s, a time of economic prosperity for the United States, its role in my family history is rooted in hardship. Unlike so many other wild instant foods that have been popularized over the years––Baby Bottle Pops, Dunkaroos, 3D Doritos––Kraft is not a phenomenon. Against all odds, the highlighter-orange cheese is and remains delicious. While the world has continued to change, Kraft’s product has remained virtually the same, somehow evading inflation at a consistent one or two dollars per box. Since then, Kraft Mac and Cheese (also known as Kraft Dinner, KD, Easy Mac, and Vitamin K) has remained a staple in North American homes. Two boxes of Kraft could be purchased for one rationing coupon, offering the masses a little taste of something satisfying when meat and dairy were unavailable. At the time, the US was deep in the pits of the Great Depression, and the official product slogan was “a meal for four in nine minutes for an everyday price of nineteen cents.” After rations were imposed during World War II, the nonperishable blue boxes cemented their place in our grocery carts and our culture. Kraft Foods officially debuted its boxed macaroni and cheese in 1937. The company geared their advertising campaigns toward kids and screamed their slogan, “You know you love it,” into the void. Anyone from Bugs Bunny to SpongeBob might show up on your dinner plate. It was also during this chaotic era that Kraft debuted their fun cartoon-inspired pasta shapes. In these commercials, sentient macaroni drive speedboats and sell out stadiums and skateboard into the sunset. In the ensuing years, he shot himself into space with huge cheese cannons and surfed massive cheese waves while noodles break-danced on the shore. Cheesasaurus Rex, Kraft’s official mascot, first graced television screens in 1991. This type of pandemonium was matched by Kraft’s own marketing tactics in the ’90s. In 1992, the Canadian band Barenaked Ladies sang: “If I had a million dollars / We wouldn’t have to eat Kraft Dinner / But we would eat Kraft Dinner / Of course we would, we’d just eat more.” Whenever they played the song live, fans would throw elbow noodles across the stage like confetti, pelting the band members with cheese powder and sometimes full boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese.
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