The crazy but always fascinating 2023 Rube Goldberg Machine Contest will be sponsored by Lunchables, giving kids a chance to seriously play with their food.
The Rube Goldberg Institute for Innovation & Creativity says the contest this year will be inspired by the Kraft Heinz brand Lunchables, and this year’s task will fittingly be called Build A Lunchables.
The contest will also celebrate the brand’s Lunchabuild This campaign, which is designed to fuel kids’ creativity and inspire them to build what they see out in the world.
“Lunchables is excited to partner with The Rube Goldberg Institute and can’t wait to see what amazing Lunchables-inspired inventions they’ll dream up,” said Samantha Mills, Associate Director of Brand Communications for Lunchables. “The Build a Lunchables Rube Goldberg task reinforces our commitment to fueling kids’ creativity and inspiring them to explore the limits of their imagination.”
A Rube Goldberg Machine, if you’ve never seen one, is an overly engineered invention that uses ordinary objects in extraordinary ways to accomplish a single task.
These chain-reaction contraptions are based on the work of the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Rube Goldberg (1883-1971), but they have continued well after his passing.
Every year since 1988, tens of thousands of students across the country build Rube Goldberg Machines and participate in its annual competitions. At the beginning of each school year The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest announces its annual task, a simple problem that each machine must solve in a ridiculously complicated manner.
The 2023 Rube Goldberg Machine Contest takes rolling submissions on its website, rubegoldberg.org, from Sept. 21, 2022, through March 23, 2023, with winners being announced on April 23, 2023. Prizes include trophies, Visa gift cards, and Rube swag. For more information on the contest, visit rubegoldberg.org
Whether a rocket ship, penguin or UFO, the Institute says there are endless possibilities for what kids can build with Lunchables, and the creativity involved in stacking, crafting and building now brings the art of invention into the mix.
“Partnering with Lunchables for this year’s Rube Goldberg Machine Contest is a dream come true! Inspiring kids to build crazy contraptions with one of their favorite lunch and snack foods is right in our sweet spot,” says Jennifer George, Rube’s granddaughter and the Chief Creative Officer of the Rube Goldberg Institute.
“Every year our Rube Goldberg Machine Contest invites builders of all ages to think differently about the everyday objects that surround them — and Lunchables does the same thing with food,” George added. “As partners, each with a mission to inspire creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, we are perfectly aligned. We can’t wait to see what the kids come up with!”
The Rube Goldberg Institute for Innovation & Creativity is a not-for-profit focused on equity and access in STEM and arts education.
The collaboration was brokered by Brand Central, the licensing agent for Kraft Heinz.