Here's using the old
noodle on a cold day
Giant macaroni serves as a hand-warmer for Packers fans
By Toni Fitzgerald
Aug 5, 2011
For Green Bay Packers fans, the only drawback to tailgating before a football game at storied Lambeau Field is frozen hands, which are common during Wisconsin's often sub-zero weather.
No matter how many pairs of gloves you wear, your hands feel like ice cubes 10 minutes into your tailgate party.
But there's a sure-fire way to unfreeze those miserable hands: Head to the giant noodle located in the parking lot.
It's yellow and curved at the front and back and hollow through the middle, the exact type of noodle you find in a box of macaroni and cheese but on a much bigger scale.
Written on the noodle in black are five simple words: "You know you love it."
People from all over the stadium parking lot gather at the noodle and lay their hands upon it.
See, this is a heated noodle, pumping out warmth designed to ease the chill in football fans' frozen hands.
The noodle is warm to the touch, and holding your hands upon it for just a minute provides welcome relief, much the way mac and cheese warmed you up on a cold day back when you were a kid.
That was the idea behind the alternative media stunt for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese dreamed up by its agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Kraft wanted to persuade adults that it was okay to admit their love for what's traditionally seen as a kids' food, and so last fall it targeted adult venues such as football games to deliver the message.
The 20-foot-long noodle was made out of fiberglass by Atomic Props, a St. Paul, Minn.-based customized props manufacturer.
It weighed 9,560 pounds and had a welded steel armature, finished off with automotive paint for the shiny cheese-like look.
Atomic Props made five such noodles for Kraft to be displayed outside sports stadiums in Chicago, Boson, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Green Bay, but the latter was the only one fitted with a heating mechanism.
The noodle appeared at Lambeau Field last September and stayed the entire season with the eventual Super Bowl champions.
The stunt worked because it provided a practical and memorable solution to one of the more annoying problems football fans face, frozen hands.
The humorous aspect of laying hands on a giant noodle also turned it into a popular photo opp, and hundreds of people uploaded their photos to Facebook and Twitter, spreading Kraft's message virally without any extra cost.
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