Kraft Will Pay You $20 To Not Eat Cheesecake & The US Is Running Short On Cream Cheese

Kraft is getting creamed and they'll pay you to take it easy on them.

The United States is grappling with a cream cheese shortage as it heads into Christmas, and Kraft is offering to pay people $20 to eat something — anything — other than cheesecake this month.

The makers of Philadelphia Cream Cheese say they're struggling to keep up with the demand, so they're trying to bring that demand down by actually paying people not to eat their product.

"If you can't spread Philly, spread the feeling," the company says on a new website dedicated to the shortage. "You may not be able to find Philly to make a cheesecake, so get any other dessert on us."

Kraft is offering to hand out $20 digital reward cards to the first 18,000 U.S. residents who sign up online this Friday, December 17 and Saturday, December 18.

Once your spot is reserved, all you have to do is buy a dessert between December 17 and December 24 (and make sure it's not cheesecake).

Save the receipt, take a photo, upload it via a custom link in your email and voila! You can expect a $20 digital reward in your email.

You can claim the reward between December 28 and January 4, according to the official rules.

The U.S. demand for cream cheese has spiked since the pandemic began and it's up 18% compared to 2019, Kraft told CNN. The company says it's investing millions to boost its production, but in the meantime it's using this $20 giveaway to control the demand.

Hackers reportedly made the U.S. shortage even worse by attacking Schreiber Foods, Kraft's main competitor, with a ransomware scheme in October.

It's unclear when the shortage will be fixed but in the meantime, you might want to start looking up recipes for apple pie.

Or you can just blow that $20 on ice cream.

Kraft's $20 giveaway is not currently open to Canadians. We've reach out to see if Canucks are also getting creamed by Kraft's shortage.