Mr. Peanut Resurrected As Baby Nut In Super Bowl 2020 Ad

After killing off Mr. Peanut in a viral ad campaign launched on Jan. 22, Planters resurrected its monocle-wearing mascot as Baby Nut in an ad premiered during the Super Bowl. At Mr. Peanut’s funeral, televised during the second quarter of the Big Game, the legume is mourned by fellow mascots Kool-Aid Man and Mr. Clean as well as actors Matt Walsh and Wesley Snipes, who were saved by the 104-year-old Mr. Peanut when he sacrificed himself before dropping off a cliff and perishing in an explosion. Kool-Aid Man’s tears fall on a freshly dug grave, and a ray of sunshine births Baby Peanut: “Just kidding,” the newborn says, “I’m back.”

“We started talking about how the internet treats when someone dies — specifically, we were thinking about fictional characters, [like when] Iron Man died [in Avengers: Endgame]. When Iron Man died, we saw an incredible reaction on Twitter and on social media,” Mike Pierantozzi, group creative director of VaynerMedia, said when explaining the decision to kill off Mr. Peanut. “It’s such a strange phenomenon. We did the unthinkable: we created a program and an idea where Mr. Peanut dies, and dies specifically sacrificing himself for his friends, which has always been a tenet of who he is and what he does — he always puts others first.”

Mr. Peanut’s official Twitter handle, @MrPeanut, was changed to “The Estate of Mr. Peanut” in the wake of his untimely demise. Following the airing of Sunday’s ad, the page was again rebranded as “Baby Nut.”

Because the top hat-wearing nut and his iconic Nutmobile were well-known to consumers, brand Planters “made it really easy for people to get involved with the idea,” Pierantozzi added. “It was in the language of something people already understood in the world of Twitter and in the world of Facebook. It was very simple for people to get involved.”

There are already signs Baby Nut is the next figure to go viral — and may have been inspired by Baby Yoda, the breakout character of live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian.

But when killing off Mr. Peanut, “You have to strike the perfect tone on this, or you really could end up with a problem,” Pierantozzi said. “So we definitely considered that. We’re very happy with the response we’re getting. We feel like we nailed the tone.”

Baby Nut’s birth was celebrated with a live stream, where the newborn nut can be seen performing tricks in real time.