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Kid Cuisine

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Kid Cuisine
IndustryFrozen dinner
FoundedApril 1989; 36 years ago (April 1989)
Area served
United States
ParentConAgra
Websitekidcuisine.com

Kid Cuisine is a brand of packaged frozen meals first sold in April 1989[1] and marketed by Conagra Foods.[2] Described as a "frozen food version of a Happy Meal",[3] the product is marketed towards children, while assuring parents of nutritional benefits. The mascot of the brand is a penguin named K.C. (short for "Kid Cuisine"),[4] while the former was a different penguin named B.J. and a polar bear named "The Chef".[5]

Nutrition and marketing techniques

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Kid Cuisine is what its own marketing agency in the 1990s and 2000s described as a "kid-driven request item", that is, children would ask their parents to buy these items.[6] Advertisements for Kid Cuisine were consciously aimed at the child, which was urged to request their mothers or parental guardians to buy these items, especially in the upper range of the 3-10 year old range the brand aimed at.[7] Kid Cuisine relies on advertising with TV and movie characters, including The Avengers, Frozen, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Hello Kitty.[3]

Kid Cuisine variants have been attested historically to be composed of three or four selections of food. Main courses and side dishes have included hamburgers, french fries, tacos, quesadillas, hot dogs, corn dogs, chicken nuggets and drumsticks, macaroni and cheese, fish sticks, pizza, vegetables (most commonly corn), and spaghetti. Desserts are also included with each meal, such as cakes, smoothies, fruit snacks, cookies, brownies, and pudding, which has color-changing sprinkles. Some breakfast varieties have also been released, like pancakes, sausages, berry toppings, tater tots, and fruit cups.

In 2022, Kid Cuisine changed their logo and mascot to a simpler logo, and K.C. is now depicted as a more realistic penguin rather than the animated version.[4]

Criticism

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The foods sold under the brand often have what Bettina Elias Siegel, author of Kid Food, called "nutritionally questionable combos", including "cheeseburgers or mac and cheese served with corn and gummy candy, [sic] chicken nuggets served with French fries and pudding", inter alia. By 2010, such foods were increasingly questioned as the obesity epidemic took center stage, and Conagra developed a new marketing technique to keep convincing mothers to buy these products for their children. With the slogan "The more you know, the less you 'no'", they attempted to convince mothers that Kid Cuisine did actually provide nutritional foods that mothers would not have to say "no" to. But "good reasons" to say "yes" were, according to Siegel, very weak, and included assurances about some of the meals containing minerals and vitamins, and "minor nutritional tweaks" like using whole grain flour for the breading of chicken nuggets. In addition, the brand changed its mascots, ran an ad campaign aimed directly at children, which included games where children could sign up and win prizes. 20,000 children signed up online in 17 days, and many came back again and again to play branded games. The dual strategy that, according to Siegel, is at work here, targets parents and children: parents' "nutritional vigilance" is eroded, while children are encouraged to demand "unhealthy" products.[6]

Meals

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Kid Cuisine meals that are still known to be produced, as of 2026:

  • All-Star Nuggets
  • Popcorn Chicken
  • Mini Corn Dogs
  • Level Up Dino Nuggets
  • Level Up Cheese Quesadillas
  • Level Up Mac & Cheese Bites
  • Level Up Shark Shaped Fish Sticks

References

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  1. ^ "Buehler's Food Markets print ad". The Herald. April 17, 1989. p. 35 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Kraak, Vivica I.; Gootman, Jennifer Appleton; McGinnis, J. Michael, eds. (2006). Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?. National Academies Press. p. 183. ISBN 9780309097130.
  3. ^ a b Farthing, Jessica (December 29, 2020). "15 Frozen Food Facts You Never Knew". Eat This, Not That. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Our Story | Kid Cuisine". www.kidcuisine.com. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
  5. ^ Gallup, Kate Hagan (2020-09-22). "The Real Reason Kid Cuisine Changed Mascots". Mashed. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
  6. ^ a b Siegel, Bettina Elias (2019). Kid Food: The Challenge of Feeding Children in a Highly Processed World. Oxford University Press. pp. 67–68. ISBN 9780190862121.
  7. ^ Coffey, Timothy J.; Siegel, David L.; Livingston, Gregory (2006). Marketing to the New Super Consumer: Mom & Kid. Paramount Market Publishing. pp. 56–58, 162–163. ISBN 9780976697329.
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