Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. More than one person's hands at the company are almost assuredly dirty here. Maybe not directly, but indirectly. No consumer packaged goods company, least of all a giant like Kraft, puts anything onto a box without many layers of approval and rounds of creative review. In this case, the buck presumably stops with the brand manager for the Mac & Cheese product. I doubt he or she would have even thought to ask abo…
As you say, it could be some freelance designer or artist whom they commissioned make the maze, and that artist committed fraud against both their customer and the real producer by passing KrazyDad's work off as his own. The company can't really double-check against out-and-out fraud. (I still think they should have financial responsibility, paying the real artist what they paid the supposed artist, even if they are…
Whatever the case may be, Kraft should do the right thing here. That probably means paying KrazyDad a fee or royalty of some kind, commensurate with the standard that they'd pay a typical artist whose original work graced their package. They should also issue a formal apology and pledge to improve their review process.
If Nickelodeon / MTV Networks was also involved, things get messier, and maybe there's a he-said, she-said dynamic that plays out. In any event, none of these folks are dummies. I sincerely hope, and would even expect, that they'll contact KrazyDad to make remedy.