Kraft no longer wants you to send noods.
Early this month, in celebration of National Noodle Day (which is, apparently, a thing), Kraft encouraged comfort-food enthusiasts to send each other delicious, delicious packets of Kraft Mac & Cheese — God’s own microwaved mac n’ cheese. “Send noods,” they said — steamy, saucy noods. Tasteful noods.
The campaign was… not received well by many. INAPPROPRIATE. The historically kid-friendly brand was taken to task for its foray into blue comedy. And I will grant you that on an Instagram page that’s probably 80 percent little kids and pets, naughty, pixelated nood pictures stood out pretty starkly. While I’m hardly a WON’T SOMEONE THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN?!!!1! type, even I can acknowledge that this campaign was kind of out there. To the point of “grooming” though? Are most kids of a “grooming” age going to understand the language and imagery used in the campaign? (INAPPROPRIATEness notwithstanding.)
And plus, I mean: pixelated macaroni and cheese. That’s funny stuff.
Eh. Anyway. Personally, I have no problem with the end of the campaign — not because I found it offensive, but because “noods” is right up there with “nugs” in the realm of Words That Did Not Need to Be Abbreviated and Now Are Immeasurably Worse. In terms of INAPPROPRIATEness, though? I’d say 6/10, tops. Mostly, I’m just pissed nobody cared enough to send me nood(le)s. That’s really hurtful, y’all.
Anyway, Kraft and their noods are hardly the only INAPPROPRIATE marketing effort of late (although they’re arguably the most prominent). Here are a few more campaigns and executions that walked the line a little. Some more successfully than others.
Tevora gets physical
Tevora is a cybersecurity/data protection/etc. firm that is, in this case, advertising their assistance with cyber-attack simulations to check, in this case, your system’s physical security. You know, physical penetration testing during red teaming.
INAPPROPRIATE?: Surprisingly, this image is only about 2/10 in terms of impropriety. (IMPROPRIETY?) The headline is an ‘80s song, the rest of the copy is legitimate software security terms, and Tevora can’t help that basically every tech term sounds vaguely dirty. (Seriously, dongle? Hot-swapping?) That said, pretty much any photo more suggestive than this one right here would take it over the top. (If anything, that makes it even funnier.)
Millennial Roofing gets nailed
Millennial Roofing grabs attention with the kind of copy that, let’s admit it, we’ve all hoped we could sneak by a client at least once, just to say we did. In this case, though, I get the feeling it was their idea to begin with, which is extra fun.
INAPPROPRIATE?: 7/10. I love a good pun, but this one seems a bit gratuitous, and it stands out pretty starkly from the rest of their social media. The 12-year-old in me says, “Hee, hot shingles, nailed.” The advertising professional in me says, “Eh, really, though?” As with most things, the 12-year-old is coming out ahead.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation shows you some WAP
… A white, angry pelican. Why? What did you think they meant?
INAPPROPRIATE?: 11/10. But I’m not mad at it. (And happy birthday, Cardi B.)
Hospital systems want Utah to mask up
Amid a pandemic, it’s good for the Utah Hospital Association to promote a crucial aspect of public health: Wearing a mask. Mask up, Utah!
INAPPROPRIATE?: 1/10. The one point comes from the tiny error in this one execution that, no matter how unintentional, rather… changes the meaning a little bit. Like, mask U and your mother, buddy.
Pill Club offers birth control on the fly
The fly. #TheFly. This fly.
INAPPROPRIATE?: 12/10 Not in the least big salacious, but GAAAAH. (Also, this concept suffers if you can’t get clearance to put Jeff Goldblum’s face on the fly.)
Outward Farms eggs got laid in Ohio
I mean, they did.
INAPPROPRIATE?: 6/10. Unnecessary, and I’m not sure it would resonate with the standard grocery-store audience, but… tee hee. Got laid, get it? Laid?
Um… personal care brand wants to help you… relax
The presidential debate a couple of weeks ago was, indeed, pretty stressful. And, um, self-care is important. For mental health. It’s important for mental health. The person who turned up this ad didn’t disclose the brand, and I wish I knew which brand it was.
… Because they were so on the ball, I mean. No other reason.
INAPPROPRIATE?: 10/10, and I’m here for it.
The 15/10s
These are so NSFW I can’t even describe them without getting blocked by SafeSearch. Feel free to skip this section. I wish I could. Definitely skip it if you’re back in a physical office.
A brand I can’t say wants you to do a thing I can’t say
Actual, honest-to-dog store display
INAPPROPRIATE?: 15/10, and not in a good way. This UK brand is infamous for its sexually explicit ads, and why? People who know me will tell you I’m hardly the shrinking violet, and this one doesn’t offend my personal sensibilities — it offends my advertising sensibilities, because it isn’t even a good branding concept. It’s naughtiness for the sake of being naughty, and that’s not creativity. Do better, y’all.
A condom campaign in Milwaukee demonstrates… stuff
Actual campaign poster, out in the world
One of many Instagram videos that are even worse
INAPPROPRIATE?: 15/10. Condoms are important. STI prevention is important. Going into specifics about how to prevent STIs is important. Illustrating this a… thing, doing a thing to a thing, or things thinging a thing, isn’t necessary, and doing it via quirky motion graphics makes it creepier, not less creepy.
0/10: Inappropriately adorable
Steamy noods? Eh. Give me unsolicited dik-diks.
You know you want it.
What do you think? (About the ads, not the dik-diks, which are unarguably munchkin.) How saucy is too saucy? And by all means, provide examples, except in those situations where you should absolutely, absolutely not provide examples.