Super Bowl commercials: Is Mr. Peanut alive again? Baby Mr. Peanut

There are a number of memorable ads this Super Bowl Sunday, and over the course of the big game, consider CarterMatt your source for some of the best! We’re going to be presenting you with ways to watch/re-watch the ads, plus also our verdict on whether or not some of them are effective at their intended goal. Sure, they want to be funny and buzzworthy, but shouldn’t they also sell the product?

Within this particular article, we’re talking a look at an especially memorable ad from Planters, one that has been hyped up for quite some time now. What is the basic theme for this ad? It’s about the death of Mr. Peanut … or at least the “death” since we all know that he’s really not going anywhere. This publicity stunt has been a long time coming.

The pitch – Mr. Peanut has a noble end to his journey while working in order to protect both Veep alum Matt Walsh and also Wesley Snipes. It’s a “sad” conclusion to the ad, since it does make you think that the peanut mascot is a goner.

What Works – Obviously, the whole “RIP Mr. Peanut” promotion has been big over the past few weeks and we’ll try to give the company credit for the big swing. (They have, however, scaled it back the past week following the shocking death of Kobe Bryant.) They already have a lot of equity in this campaign leading into the game, and this is just an extension of it.

What Doesn’t – Does this ad really pay off the hype? On the surface, we’d argue not so much — it more or less just continues to build up some of the hype that is already out there about the campaign. It doesn’t do anything more to stand out on its own two feet.

Overall Verdict -We’ll say that the entire campaign was an interesting one that has brought a lot more attention to Planters as a brand — for that, the company deserves credit. Yet, we’re not evaluating an overall campaign here — it’s instead about ads and this one feels somewhat like a miss. Grade: B-.

Update!

In the second part tonight, we saw that Mr. Peanut has been revived! He’s back … not that you should be surprised. Still, it was fun to see other mascots around for his “funeral.” Also, Baby Mr. Peanut was born! Watch the new commercial below.

Want more Super Bowl commercials?

Then head over to the link here! Meanwhile, be sure to share what you think about this ad in the comments!