• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer @mahoney_sarah, November 7, 2022

Now that families are fighting less about COVID vaccines, they’re back to annoying each other with overly personal questions. So HelloFresh, the meal kit company, is offering a limited-edition Pass Master.

The Lazy Susan-like gizmo ostensibly enables families to move food around the table more efficiently, using a “pass” button. But it’s also got a conversational “pass” button for questions people just don’t want to answer.

HelloFresh’s inhouse creative team made the spots.

“Tapping into the unavoidable truth that sometimes family members bring up unwanted questions, we commissioned a survey to get a better understanding of how consumers experience this phenomenon,” says Kirsten Walpert, vice president of brand marketing for HelloFresh.

It then came up with the Pass Master as a “playful solution designed to truly make the whole Thanksgiving experience drama-free.”

Among the findings: About 53% of people think politics are the worst topic to come up during Thanksgiving, followed by religion (35%) and the economy (28%). More than half have dodged intrusive questions in the past, and 41% think it’s likely someone will bring up an uncomfortable conversation at Thanksgiving this year.

Walpert tells D2C Insider one copy of The Pass Master, designed for hosts with a sense of humor, is being sold via auction, with all proceeds benefiting City Harvest.

While HelloFresh is headquartered in Germany, the U.S, division is based in New York. “Addressing food insecurity and making fresh food accessible to everyone is a core mission at HelloFresh,” Walpert says in an email. “Through our Beyond the Box program, we work with several food rescue organizations to support the local communities where we operate.” In addition to  City Harvest, the company teams up with the New York Liberty and the New York Knicks to distribute meals throughout New York City.

And anyone can download its pass cards:yellow to alert people the conversation is about to go sideways, and red to give a question a hard pass.

HelloFresh is a subscription meal-kit company, but its Thanksgiving boxes–priced from $150 to $190–are sold separately.