(This article is discontinued/to be continued. Originally written on Febuary 6 2020 for my self-titled essay collection, the next part of this article will be published in the forseeable future.)
Contains spoilers for: The RIP Mr Peanut commercial, the Baby Nut Super Bowl Commercial, the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Mandalorian
The Internet People love the Baby trend: first we had Baby Groot, then Baby Yoda and even Baby Sonic. Baby Nut is the newest mascot for company Planters, continuing Mr. Peanut’s legacy when he died saving two random actors in a ‘car crash’ a week ago. The original idea of Baby Nut is that he had risen from Mr Peanut’s grave and Kool-Aid’s tears, which gave him the miracle of life and in turn became the newest internet sensation/meme. After the initial release of the Super Bowl commercial of his birth, fans of Planters and the internet mob raged on the internet and collectively hate Baby Nut.
It is safe to say that people don’t response well to the birth of Baby Nut. Twitter user @21sDagger expressed his rage under Baby Nut’s post, ‘I’m going to kill baby peanut man’, followed by a picture of a sledgehammer and a crushed peanut. @stonecolddadi69 attacked Baby Nut tweeting, ‘I want to squish stupid lil baby nut with my bare hands I hate him’ along with a GIF of Baby Nut dancing. When @TOZIERCLOUD asked @uhohbabey what did Baby nut ever do to her, @uhohbabey replied, ‘look at those stupid little baby hands. And his stupid little eyes. i hope he suffers the pain of a thousand fiery deaths’. Baby Nut has become the newest internet meme, with people hating on Baby Nut to the point where they would make peanut butter from Baby Nut’s organs and give it to Baby Yoda. But why do people hate Baby Nut so much? What does this say about our society?
To explore this topic further, we must first learn why companies uses mascots. Planters’ original mascot, the late Mr. Peanut, has been one of the most iconic mascots in the 20th Century, with his face printed on every single can of peanuts they produce. Mascots are typically used to capture the target audience’s attention, build an emotion connection and establish a recognisable personality for the brand. Mr. Peanut has been around since 1916, was previously voiced by actors Robert Downey Jr. and Bill Hader and is widely known as one of the most famous mascots alongside M&Ms and Tony the Tiger.
Mr. Peanut has been around for 104 years. Perhaps that is exactly why the marketing department of Planters decided to switch it up and follow the baby trend of babifying characters: Disney has got it. Baby Groot and Baby Yoda has appealed to the mass and became successful internet sensations, with fans sending nothing but love and protection to these cute babies. Baby Groot was born after his predecessor (regular) Groot sacrificed himself for his friends in film Guardians of the Galaxy, having a tragic yet heartwarming backstory. The origin of Baby Yoda (official known as ‘The Child’) is still unknown, but one theory suggests that he is the biological offspring of Star Wars characters Yoda and Yaddle, that Yaddle was killed by terrorists after a attack on her planet, leaving Baby Yoda orphaned (that is before the title character of The Mandalorian adopted him). With the success of these Disney babies, advertising agency for Planters probably thought that it would be a good idea to ‘revamp’ the Planters brand a bit. Here is how it probably went in the marketing pitching meeting:
‘We should kill off Mr. Peanut by making him sacrifice for his friends, then make Kool-Aid shed a tear on his very grave to respawn a baby version of Mr. Peanut. Just like Baby Groot.’
‘Excellent idea, Connor. What should we call the new baby?’
‘Baby... Peanut?’
‘No Darryl, Baby Peanut is too predictable. How about Baby Nut?’
‘Wouldn’t that be a bit inappropriate?’
‘What is?’
‘Never mind.’
I believe that two major factors resulting in the collective Baby Nut hate are: the unnecessary, commercialised backstory of his birth, and the unoriginal instinct to follow internet culture. First, let us go through the problem with his backstory. One may argue that his backstory is worked for Baby Groot and Baby Yoda, so theoretically it should work for Baby Nut too. However, the advertising agency overestimated the emotional value a peanut’s death could have for its audience. To put it simple, nobody cares about Mr. Peanut’s death. Indeed they copied Groot’s backstory by having him to sacrifice for his friends, hence making him a hero, but it does not add depth to his characters. Nobody would shed a tear for the advertisement. Groot’s death has an emotional value because the audience has familiarised themselves to these characters for 2 hours before it happened, and everyone felt the power of friendship and family when he gave his life to protect his friends. On the other hand, we had no clue what Mr. Peanut was like before this commercial. All we knew was that he is probably very rich (hence the top hat and monocle), he has this stupid peanut car named the nutmobile and that he is the dumb guy from Planters. His death lacked depth to the story. All we see from the ad was an unnecessary marketing move by Planters, and that they are trying so hard to make #RIPeanut trend on Twitter. (Planters, stop trying to make #RIPeanut happen, it’s not going to happen.)
People were already done with Mr. Peanut after the first commercial surfaced. Everyone was talking about how dumb this was, but then came Baby Nut. The commercial itself was not at all bad, you can see its high production value of the CGI and actors. However, it is the storyline of the advertisement that falls short. Mr Peanut has been resurrected by Kool-Aid’s tear and has risen as Baby Nut from his grave. This has made Mr Peanut’s sacrifice seemed like a farce, something that has been used just for shock value. There was nothing touching or emotionally impactful about Baby Nut’s birth; all we see is a stupid commercial. They could have just made Mr Peanut get married to another Peanut and have Baby Nut together, and nobody would be pissed about it. Through this advertisement that nobody asked for, Planters has shown their out of touch with the audience of their advertisements.
To be continued...