• by Erik Oster , March 12, 2024

Lunchables Dunkables -- the brand’s snack line extension -- is searching for a child aged 5-13 to fill a new role. The Kraft Heinz brand isn’t flouting child labor laws in its search for a “Chief Imagination Officer” -- it’s a promotional extension appealing to young artists to respond to an imaginative prompt which could find its way into its campaign touting the virtues of childhood imagination.

The contest challenge: "Create a piece of artwork using the prompt 'imagine a mozzarella stick or pretzel twist as something fantastical.”' The brand will determine a winner to crown as its “Chief Imagination Officer” based on relevance to this theme, creativity, and originality.

The CIO will receive a four-day trip to Chicago for which they can take up to three guests, along with $1,500 in spending money. They’ll get to spend a day at Lunchables’ headquarters and participate in “imagination sessions” to create their own  content for an upcoming social media campaign. While there, they’ll also be given free reign of the Lunchables HQ kitchen to taste-test upcoming product releases, and craft their own custom Dunkable variety. Plus they’ll receive a year’s worth of Dunkables, across the snack lines’ range of varieties.

Lunchables Dunkables is also featuring “K.I. vs. A.I.” art comparisons featuring the work of young artists responding to prompts on its campaign website, as well as in OOH installations outside select museums in Austin and Los Angeles.

“Today’s kids are among the most creative generation of our time,” Lunchables senior brand manager Alyssa Cicero said in a statement, citing a 2019 Gen Alpha survey by creative agency/entertainment studio Beano Studios. That survey defined “Creative Entrepreneurs” as one of five “trends” for Gen Alpha kids – finding that 86% of Gen Alpha kids “enjoy designing, making and building things,” and 55% “enjoy making creative videos.”

Cicero said of Dunkables snacks, “Kids don’t just eat them -- they dream up entire universes around them. “

The new initiative is an extension of how the brand employed that concept in the campaign launch ads, which featured imaginative elements like pretzel swords and mozzarella submarines bringing to life feedback dreamed up by its target audience.