Mr. Peanut sacrifices himself to save Wesley Snipes in a bizarre new Planters Super Bowl ad. Indeed, the big game is almost here and that means the time has come for brands to begin releasing their annual onslaught of creative, star-studded and above all expensive Super Bowl commercials.
Of course, in many years these big-money Super Bowl ads end up overshadowing the game itself, and a few of the clips in question have even gone on to become iconic in their own right. Arguably the first truly memorable Super Bowl ad arrived in 1984 when Apple advertised their Macintosh line with a dystopian clip inspired by George Orwell’s novel 1984. A more recent example of a memorable ad inspired by a classic work of fiction came in 2011 when Volkwagen debuted their spot showing a small kid in a Darth Vader costume trying to use the Force. Kids and animals are indeed frequently featured in Super Bowl ads, as in Budweiser’s 2014 spot about a dog and a Clydesdale becoming best friends, or E-Trade’s funny 2008 ad featuring a baby trading stocks.
Now, Planters is trying to get some of that Super Bowl run with a truly weird ad of their own starring their mascot Mr. Peanut, and actors Snipes and Matt Walsh. Unexpectedly, by the end of the commercial the 104-year-old Mr. Peanut has met a truly bizarre and allegedly humorous end at the bottom of a canyon. Of course, the Planters social media accounts are also getting in on the “fun.” See both the ad (via the renamed Estate of Mr. Peanut YouTube account) and a relevant Mr. Peanut tweet in the space below:
The ad starts with Mr. Peanut, Walsh and Snipes riding in a Peanut-shaped vehicle that quickly goes over a cliff, ejecting the three passengers and leaving them hanging from a branch over the precipice. When the branch starts to break, Walsh and Snipes argue over which of them should let go so the others can live. As the emotional music swells, Mr. Peanut decides that he will sacrifice himself and plunges to the bottom of the canyon, landing with a thud next to the crashed Peanutmobile. Snipes says “Maybe he’ll be all right,” at which point the vehicle explodes, removing all doubt about Mr. Peanut’s fate (a joke stolen straight from the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day). A card then comes up saying “Mr. Peanut – 1916-2020.”
To be sure, killing off Mr. Peanut in such a brutal fashion is an incredibly odd way to tout the virtues of Planters nuts (it remains to be seen if this is a one-off joke or the prelude to the launch of a new mascot for the brand). Of course, brands are always trying to make a splash with their Super Bowl ads by hiring big stars and unleashing such off-the-wall humor, but this is one case where the brand in question may have miscalculated (responses to Planters’ #RIPeanut hashtag have not been positive so far). Making fun of social media’s love of RIP posts may have sounded like a good idea at some point, but Planters may wish to take a second look at this particular bizarre and somewhat off-putting campaign.
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Source: The Estate of Mr. Peanut/YouTube, Mr. Peanut/Twitter
