Planters Introduces Baby Nut At Super Bowl And Twitter Goes Into Meltdown

While some were still rejoicing over the late Mr. Peanut’s death, the spokesnut has been brought back by the gods (of Planters’ marketing department) in the form of the much cuter Baby Nut.

Planters debuted Baby Nut on Sunday in a Super Bowl ad showing Mr. Peanut’s funeral. As mourners reflect on the late nut’s life, a tear drops from Kool-Aid Man and falls to the dirt. A new sprout bursts forth the ground and Baby Nut is born.

A sports business reporter for The Action Network received this “nutty” statement from Planters about the newborn.

Last month, when the snack food brand killed off  its 104-year-old legume spokesman in a dramatic ad his nutmobile careened off a cliff some Twitter users mourned. Others decided he’d likely gone straight to hell for repeatedly betraying his people. 

On Sunday, Planters took no time in discarding Mr. Peanut, changing the name on his former Twitter page to Baby Nut and pushing out content on their new star.

The brand had temporarily suspended the ad campaign last week out of respect for the families of NBA star Kobe Bryant and the others who died in a helicopter crash, but the company said in a statement at the time that it did not plan to change the Super Bowl spot.

The infant peanut drew mixed reactions. Many fawned over the newest addition to the fast-growing family of cartoon babies sparked by Baby Yoda and quick-thinking marketers, while others seemed to hold the newborn accountable for Mr. Peanut’s past atrocities.

Either way, Planters’ strategy apparently worked. #BabyNut trended at No. 5 on Twitter and the brand raked in thousands of tweets for and against the baby spokesnut. 

Here’s what the peanut gallery had to say: