KD has been known as Canada’s unofficial national food for decades. But in the mid-2010s, the brand changed. KD underwent an overhaul in an attempt to follow healthier food trends. They said goodbye to artificial flavours and preservatives, and the communications took on a more functional, tactical approach to win over consumers. As a result, the brand lost its cheeky tone and swagger, lost its nostalgic love from Canadians, and ultimately, people stopped caring about KD. Sales declined, brand equity declined and even awareness declined. KD was in danger of losing its status as a Canadian icon. They needed to make people care about KD again.

Canadians have strong feelings about how you should eat KD. Whether it’s adding hot dogs, ketchup, or how much milk or butter, Canadians have always been protective of KD. They saw a trend of Canadians flocking to social media when anything about the brand changed. So, that’s exactly what they did. To get Canadians to fall back in love with KD, they messed with it, creating a new flavour that they knew would be completely polarizing: Pumpkin Spice KD. The flavour was a parody of Starbucks’ iconic seasonal latte, and undoubtedly one of the most hated flavours in the world, and it was all part of the plan. They knew that this new flavour would trigger Canadians to come to the defense of KD and claim their love for the pure and simple original mac and cheese they’ve known and loved for decades.

They took the OG KD, “revamped” it and launched their new Pumpkin Spice KD on the first day of Fall. The campaign kicked off with a social post that showed the new Pumpkin Spice KD in a not-so-subtle, Starbucks’-inspired white cup. The post asked Canadians to sign up via a website to be notified when the product dropped in October.

To make matters worse, they created OOH that used headlines like, “This ain’t no basic batch” and mirrored classic Pumpkin Spice #basic tropes right down to the tabletop product shots with mini gourds and models in chunky knits. KD purists were horrified.

People lost their minds over it. While some loved it and couldn’t wait to get their hands on it, most Canadians were predictably outraged over the new flavour. And it wasn’t just consumers who took to social media to voice their opinions. Canadian celebrities declared it an atrocity, and even celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay, David Chang, and Tom Colicchio jumped into the conversation to tell KD they’d gone too far. From there, the campaign continued to spread like wildfire, not just in Canada, but around the world. The new flavour was such a hot topic that it dominated social media and news headlines, catching the attention of Al Roker, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and millions more.

It was all part of the plan, because the response from consumers was about how great the original KD was. Many agreed that KD shouldn’t be messed with at all, that it’s perfect the way it's always been. People weren’t just talking about it, they were even buying KD at levels unseen in years. People fell in love with the original KD again.

The campaign generated 2.8 billion earned impressions and $590 million USD worth of earned publicity, including over 40 hours of TV coverage. Pumpkin Spice KD sold out in under 24 hours and contributed to a 27% increase in sales for original KD, the highest mark for the brand in four years. Most importantly, people came to the defence of original KD and demanded that we never mess with the beloved original ever again.