Kraft Heinz' hilarious marketing campaign encouraging people to "send noods" has faced backlash online after a slew of angry moms took aim at their Instagram posts, saying that the company had "sexualized mac 'n' cheese" and was being "predatory" towards children.
Some of the critics even went so far as to use hashtags and talking points associated with the QAnon mass delusion to attack the company over the pun, per Buzzfeed News.
Lynne Galia, a spokesperson for Kraft Heinz, told the publication in a statement that the social media campaign was inspired by National Noodle Day last week and "encouraged adults to send free noodles to loved ones to provide comfort and make them smile."
On Tuesday, the company launched their #SendNoods campaign with a video featuring former Saturday Night Live actor Vanessa Bayer.
"In these strange times, people are in need of extra comfort. That's why it's always a nice gesture to send noods," Bayer says. "To be clear, I'm not advocating you send nudes to anyone. ... Send noods, not nudes."
The Instagram post has since been deleted. "The company is well aware of the backlash," Galia confirmed to Buzzfeed News, detailing that since the campaign has already ended, "the content will be removed from our channels."
Some of Kraft's customers failed to see the humor in the advertisement, and branded it as "inappropriate" because Kraft was a "family company".
Some "moms" even threatened to take their business to Annie's, another company that sells similar products.
"This is not okay. Don’t you realize that a huge portion of the people who actually eat your mac n’ cheese are children?!" wrote one social media user, while another corroborated, "Please delete this!! Unacceptable! Switching over to Annie’s organics."
"Stop stop stop!!!!!!! Listen to all of these moms!! We are your customers!!!" added a third, self-professed "mother".
