Horrifying new fan art inspired by the Super Bowl ad shows Mr. Peanut devouring his son Baby Nut. The Planters company first introduced Mr. Peanut as their official logo way back in 1916, but the monocle-wearing character’s century-long run as the face of the company seemingly came to an end two weeks ago as part of a bizarre viral campaign.
The strange #RIPeanut campaign began with a pre-released Super Bowl ad in which the Mr. Peanut character sacrificed himself in dramatic fashion to save the lives of actors Wesley Snipes and Matt Walsh (who found themselves in the middle of the action for seemingly random reasons). Despite accusations of tastelessness, the saga culminated during the Super Bowl itself in a second ad set at Mr. Peanut’s funeral. Here Planters unleashed their big twist: Tears from the eye of Kool-Aid Man fell on on Mr. Peanut’s grave and a new mascot, dubbed Baby Nut, came to life.
As Planters hoped, the arrival of Baby Nut resulted in a fair amount of internet buzz (not all of it positive). It also resulted in the creation of at least one truly disturbing bit of art from Nina Matsumoto depicting Mr. Peanut devouring Baby Nut in the style of the famous Goya painting “Saturn Devouring His Son.” See the horrifying art in the space below:
Fan art like Matsumoto’s painting is probably not what Planters had in mind when they concocted their Mr. Peanut/Baby Nut campaign, as it turns the whole thing into something twisted and bizarre rather than cute. Of course, the viral #RIPeanut campaign was itself already somewhat bizarre and in many people’s minds incredibly inappropriate, as it seemed to make light of the whole idea of social media mourning.
In fact, it was previously revealed that Planters drew inspiration for the whole death of Mr. Peanut scenario from the death of Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame, and more specifically from the world’s very real emotional reaction to the demise of the beloved character. After seemingly parodying the notion of people grieving dead movie characters, the Planters campaign then went on to make fun of the idea of dead characters conveniently coming back to life with a Baby Nut character seemingly inspired by Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy.
With the RIP Mr. Peanut story now over, it seems Planters has their mascot back, albeit in child-like form (which will no doubt lead to more opportunities for viral advertising inspired by everyone’s favorite adorable alien infant Baby Yoda). In the final analysis, the whole saga was more perplexing than adorable and probably made Planters look silly and tone-deaf rather than cool – which sadly is par-for-the-course for brands attempting to create social media buzz.
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Source: Nina Matsumoto/Twitter
