Kraft’s ‘Dinner, Not Art’ App to Save Noodles
0 
Handheld devices like iPad, Kindle Fire, and Galaxy Tablets have become a parent’s best friend when it comes to occupying their kid. Days spent with my parents or babysitters meant that they had to keep me entertained for as long as I was awake. My favorite activity? Arts and crafts. I loved everything about making something from nothing. Whether I was painting or sculpting with clay, I was happy to be making something of my very own to give to someone special. One of my favorite arts and crafts activities was gluing macaroni to a sheet of construction paper and painting the noodles to make a textured picture. So fun!
Apparently, the days of gluing down macaroni are now considered passé; now, KRAFT has developed an app that encourages your kid’s artistic endeavors… without having them use up your noodles for dinner. The app, Dinner, Not Art, is a digital re-imagining of my favorite arts and crafts past-time. You can place noodles anywhere on the screen, rotate them in the direction you want them to face, change the size of the noodles, and paint them any color you please. When you’re done with your masterpiece, you just “glue it all down” and save it to the “digital refrigerator.” KRAFT will be posting the uploaded photos onto their Facebook and Pintrest pages.
It’s a cute idea, but I can’t help but feel bad for kids these days. I know, at the ripe age of twenty five I sound like an old geezer; but back in MY DAY, we got our hands dirty! We glued noodles and lentils and yarn onto pieces of paper. We rubbed our hands together to peel away the glue that stuck to our fingers. We painstakingly planned out what colors we would use to paint our masterpieces–there was no “undo” option. And is it REALLY a huge deal to “waste” a box of noodles? If you’re dumb enough to use name brand noodles that DON’T cost 49 cents, maybe. Yeah, it’s great that you can automatically share these images via social media networks, but then what makes it so special and personal? It’s already beyond annoying to have my Facebook spammed with parents announcing their kid took a gigantic sh*t; do you really need to see their artwork that isn’t really “hand made?”
Aside from my old lady rant, the app does look pretty fun to try out… and I GUESS I can see the appeal to parents, seeing how it’s a lot less messy than handing your kid some Elmer’s and a bunch of noodles (see the commercials below). Plus, through December 31st, KRAFT will donate 10 REAL noodles to Feeding America for every artwork uploaded to the digital fridge. Right now the app is only available on your handheld tablets, but soon they will be available for desktops and laptops.
