Pour 'em out for Mr. Peanut, RIP

Most of you may have heard by now. Mr. Peanut, the cute, creepy and, undoubtedly, iconic spokesnut for Planters has passed at the ripe old age of 104.

Here’s how it apparently went down. The world will get to relive it during the brand’s Super Bowl commercial, which was released in its entirety yesterday…by The Estate of Mr. Peanut, of course.

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UIKq9u6xUM&w=854&h=480]

Now, let’s put aside the commercial itself. Mainly because I can’t quite determine the logic of Wesley Snipes, Matt Walsh and the Nutmobile quite yet. Nor am I sold on the need for a cinematic scene complete with the old head off a cliff and burst into flames thing. I digress. I am, though, sort of in love with the overall thinking.

Planters has obviously known it was going to move away from Mr. Peanut for a good long while. Chances are that research told someone that the weird guy with the single spectacle and rickety cane wasn’t quite connecting with young folk anymore. Hey, it happens. So, instead of simply rolling out a new campaign, or doing a more muted sendoff to their spokes hero, Planters leaned way in. Kill him. Kill him good.

Again, I always love to imagine the thinking and folks who might have inspired a “risky” approach like this. I’d like to believe it was someone noting: “hey, if we’re going to kill him off, let’s use the biggest stage in the world to do it.” The rationale? Cultural relevancy. A platform to communicate across channels. An opportunity to into the brand-to-brand social media trend (love it or hate it). Oh yea, and it’s probably one of the brand’s biggest consumption moments of the year. That’s the kicker for me.

How successful this effort ultimately becomes is yet to “officially” be seen, but I’m in on it. It makes you want to pour some out as part of your Super Bowl snack table in honor of a true legend — in the same spirit of how fellow brands in the “mascot club” expressed a similar sentiment .

Mr. Peanut may be gone, but his parents have done an admirable job to ensure he won’t soon be forgotten.