Rinker on Collectibles

RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1730

R.I.P. Mr. Peanut - Or Maybe Not

Mr. Peanut has died at the age of 104, a ripe old age in advertising as well as human terms. At this point, it is not clear if Mr. Peanut will rest in peace or again prove that Samuel Clements’ (Mark Twain) comment that “reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated” has applicability in the human as well as the advertising character realm.

Mr. Peanut was the advertising logo and mascot of Planters, a division of Kraft Heinz based in Chicago, Illinois. His name was Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe.

Amedeo Obici founded the Planters Peanut Company, located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1906. It incorporated two years later as the Planters Nut and Chocolate Company.

In 1916, Antonio Gentile, a young schoolboy, submitted a drawing of an anthropomorphic peanut to a contest run by Planters. His prize was five dollars.

[Author’s Aside #1: Dr. Joseph Dowling, who taught world history (from hairy man to modern times) in two semesters during the uniform freshman year engineering curriculum at Lehigh University during the 1959-1960 academic year, was prone to suggesting pick-up lines with a historical bent that Lehigh men could use to wow members of the female persuasion. “Did you know the Persian gods were anthropomorphic?’ was one of my favorites. To be honest, it fell flat with the few young ladies upon whom I tried it.]

There is some dispute as to whether the commercial artist Andrew S. Wallach or Frank P. Kritze, Sr., a Wilkes-Barre artist and head of Planter’s Suffolk plant, added the cane, monocle, and top hat to create the iconic character that became Mr. Peanut. Andrew Wallach’s daughter Virginia claimed that Kritze joined the project after Mr. Peanut was created.

[Author’s Aside #2: Amedeo Obici befriended Antonio Gentile and paid for his and four of his siblings’ college education. In addition, Amedeo paid Antonio’s way through medical school.]

By the mid-1930s, the raffish, old-fashioned gentleman became the symbol for the entire peanut industry. Mr. Peanut appeared on almost every Planters package, most advertising, and numerous television commercials.

The downtown peanut shop was nearing the end of its golden age during my adolescent and young adult years. I have fond memories of walking down Hamilton Street in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and stopping to watch the Planters Peanut roasting machine beside which stood a life-size statue of Mr. Peanut. When my travels take me along Pennsylvania’s Route 61 between Hamburg and Pottsville, I always stop at the Port Clinton Peanut Shop to relive those memories. The Planters Nutmobile and individuals dressed in Mr. Peanut costumes were a parade favorite, albeit I preferred the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile because the driver tossed out plastic Wienermobile whistles to the crowd.

Although manufacturers constantly update their advertising characters, most individuals only remember a character’s appearance at the time of their youth and early adulthood. In watching the YouTube video of Mr. Peanut’s ultimate selfless act as he sacrifices himself to save his human friends, I thought “who is this ridiculous cartoon image passing himself off as Mr. Peanut? He is not the Mr. Peanut I remember.”

In 2006, Planters conducted an online contest in which the public was able to vote as to whether Planters should add a bow tie, cufflinks, and/or a pocket watch to Mr. Peanut. The public voted no to all three. I missed the opportunity to exercise my vote but rest easy knowing that I would have voted with the majority.

Some advertising characters such as the Jolly Green Giant (Ho, Ho, Ho) and Speedy Alka-Seltzer spoke. The Mr. Peanut I remember was a mute. Never content to let sleeping dogs lie, Mr. Peanut spoke for the first time on November 8, 2010, thanks to Actor Robert Downey, Jr. In 2011, Peanut Butter Doug, Mr. Peanut’s stunt double, was introduced and voiced by Kevin Dillion. On July 1, 2013, Bill Harder, a Saturday Night Live alumnus, was the voice of Planters Nut-rition product line

[Author’s Aside #3: I no longer watch cable television shows that have commercials. As a result, I missed all this tampering with the iconic Mr. Peanut image. I am a better person because of this. If I had watched, I would have buried Mr. Peanut in my mind long before 2020.]

Mr. Peanut’s death was the inspiration of Mike Pierantozzi from VeynerMedia. When Iron Man [if you do not know who this is, you are over 70, without grandchildren, and have enough good sense to ignore all superhero movies on cable television] died, Pierantozzi noticed an inordinate amount of posts on social media and Twitters. If it worked for Iron Man, Mr. Pieratonzzi could make it work for Mr. Peanut, especially if he could attach a sacrificial, endearing ending to the story.

On January 22, 2020, a teaser commercial for the Planter’s commercial for Super Bowl LIV showed Mr. Peanut, Wesley Snipes, and Matt Walsh hanging from a branch after accidentally driving the Nutmobile off a cliff to avoid an armadillo. One of the three had to drop of the cracking branch to reduce the weight and save the other two.

[Author’s Aside #4: I would have found the teaser commercial more entertaining had Planters provided a contest hotline whereby the public could vote on whether Mr. Peanut, Snipes, or Walsh should drop from the branch to save the others and reveal the public’s choice during the third-quarter commercial originally planned. I would not have voted for Mr. Peanut. Forget the armadillo. He had enough sense to skedaddle.]

Planter’s Super Bowl commercial focused on Mr. Peanut’s funeral. Wesley Snipes and Matt Walsh preside over the funeral. The Kool-Aid Man and Mr. Clean were in attendance. The Kool-Aid Man’s tears fell to the ground, were nurtured by sunlight, and resulted in Baby nut, a new younger incarnation of Mr. Peanut, growing from the soil.

Unfortunately for Planters, the death of Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020, seven days before Super Bowl LIV, resulted in a postponement of the funeral commercial. The commercial eventually aired and was made available on YouTube.

A Planters spokesperson told “Advertising Age” that Mr. Peanut actually may have suffered a comic book death. The spokesperson cited superhero deaths in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where dead heroes miraculous reappear in later films.

The real tragedy of Mr. Peanut’s death is that it resulted from the modern social media feeding frenzy. Mr. Peanut did not become an iconic advertising character because he changed according to every media whim that occurred during his lifetime. His strength was not his sense of self-sacrifice but his steadiness, whether wearing a helmet during World War II or standing tall and proud for what he represented. Mr. Peanut was uncompromising in terms of quality and endurance.

Further, Mr. Peanut was an anthropomorphic character. While he exhibited human characteristics, he did not need human support. I am concerned that advertising has reached a point where humans, albeit admittedly some are characters, are more valuable than iconic cartoon figures. Mr. Peanut is not the first advertising character to die. The list is long. Think Bucky Beaver, California Raisins, Farfel the Dog, the Frito Bandito, Mr. Zip, Pizza Pete, and Sharpie “the Gillette” parrot.

I oppose any magical reincarnation of Mr. Peanut as found in comic book stories and video games. Young minds are distorted enough via these media in respect to the realities of death. Do not use Mr. Peanut to enhance their disillusionment. Further, forget Baby Nut. Icons cannot be cloned. Mr. Peanut is not the resurrection and the light. He is an advertising character whose usefulness had ended. Let Mr. Peanut rest in peace.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Selected letters will be answered in this column. Harry cannot provide personal answers. Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned. Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI 49512. You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

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