Dive Brief:
- Kraft Heinz and agency CP+B released a foul-mouthed digital video spot that has a mother's swearing censored with a Kraft Macaroni & Cheese noodle as she tries to come up with kid-friendlier alternatives like "monkey-flunking," according a press release from the company. Released just ahead of Mother's Day, the ad has gone viral, according to Mashable, being viewed nearly 2.4 million times on YouTube.
- The "Swear Like a Mother" campaign is rooted in a Kraft survey that found that 74% of moms admit to having cursed in front of her kids. The mother in the video spot suggests that the other 26% who say they have never sworn in front of their kids are "full of s--t."
- Kraft also offered a guide to alternative swearing, Mother's Day cards and noodle-shaped "fail-cancelling earplugs" for kids looking to block out their moms' lewd language, which were available on a campaign site while supplies lasted.
Dive Insight:
Kraft prides itself on being a family-oriented brand, and the "Swear like a Mother" effort adds a fun, funnier spin on that mission while still acknowledging some of the messier frustrations of parenting. The ad is the latest work in the company's "Make It Right" campaign, which launched earlier in 2017 and features moms and dads who make up for their parenting missteps by serving up some of the brand's classic mac and cheese, according to Adweek.
The commercial features a "real-life swearing expert" named Melissa Mohr, author of "Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing," who stumbles in delivering clean alternatives like "flipping goof nugget” and salutes parents for being "perfectly imperfect" in honor of the upcoming holiday.
The effort appears to be an attempt to appeal to millennial moms, who tend to react more positively to authenticity in advertising.
Beyond already going viral online, the effort has a strong physical activation with the availability of cards and noodle-shaped "fail-cancelling earplugs" online. They make for a decent, holiday-friendly physical tie-in — and one that clearly worked. The earplugs are sold out online, but consumers can still download and print a make-your-own card to glue to a box of the pasta.
