Mr. Peanut’s Last Stand

Today’s visual aid comes from the Cabinet of Commercial Curiosities. Regular readers may recall our monocled friend, Mr. Peanut, dapper brand character in the service of Planter’s portfolio of peanut products from butter to brittle. Mr. P has lent his likeness to this feeble hand-cranked device for the manufacture of home-made peanut butter. Sadly it would need to be a lot more robust to offer any chance of successfully grinding peanuts into paste. Nevertheless it played its part in the long campaign to convince the public that the consumption of ground nuts need not be the exclusive preference of the nation’s pigs. The double page ad from Saturday Evening Post (May 1956) celebrates the Golden Jubilee of Planter’s products and provides a handy history of the company’s expansion. It may have been written in 1956 but the text could easily pass for the present day language of MBA-speak or the clichéd drivel of Dragon’s Den. Anyway the time has come for Mr. P’s transition to a new life in retirement – his next appearance may well be on eBay. 

Beyond Endurance with Mr. Peanut

In our most recent commentary on the illustrious career of Mr. Peanut there was a facetious remark about his presidential ambitions. I have since been reminded that there was a precedence for this in 1976 when a former peanut farmer, Mr. Jimmy Carter was elected to the highest office. He may well have been the last occupant of the White House to be in possession of a fully developed conscience – no surprise that he turned out to be a one-term president. Meanwhile, Mr. P crossed the Atlantic around 1979-80 (about the same time that Jimmy Carter was losing the election to Ronald Reagan) and attempted to reposition himself as an arch-sophisticate with the slogan Temptation Beyond Endurance. These examples come from the resulting campaign of magazine advertising in which artful illustration was deployed to transcend the humble nature of the product. Standard Foods employed the agency Cherry Hedger & Seymour Ltd. who produced the examples we see here. The ligne-claire homage (above and immediately below) to Magritte was the work of Jeffery Edwards and the Old Mastery image of a divine hand picking up a truckload of Planters Nuts (it could just as readily read in reverse as if God was lowering the precious cargo to the ground) was painted in oils by Warren Madill. There’s a Degas pastiche and a copywriter’s infernal fantasy that wraps up the temptation theme. This was a brief interlude and recent promotion of Planters products in the UK has been relatively conventional. Mr. P is now in the custody of Trigon Snacks where he finds himself in the unlikely company of Big D babes whose dubious charms are revealed as punters buy up the packs of peanuts that conceal her scantily clad image.

Mr. Peanut in Postcards

Mr. Peanut took the fight for market share to the very heart of New York City with a dedicated store and gigantic neon sign on Broadway near Times Square. A twenty-foot likeness in neon lights greatly enhanced his powers of persuasion with the sophisticates of Manhattan’s theater district. He even caught the eye of quintessentially Parisian photographer, Brassaï, on a visit to New York in 1957. The consumer on vacation was not forgotten and easy access was offered to the delights of Mr. Peanut’s portfolio of products in another Planters emporium in Atlantic City. A conscientious brand-character never rests and Mr. P conducted himself with exemplary dignity and decorum in all his assignments as product ambassador. With his cheery disposition and raffish air he won a special place in the affections of the American public that seems to endure to the present. He has yet to become the subject of a Broadway musical or have his spindly form carved into the slopes of Mount Rushmore but it may be only a matter of time. For now, follow his progress in the upcoming Republican Primaries – he has the makings of a fine President.

Mr Peanut presents........ Dead Presidents

The young American in 1953 with a thirst for knowledge, after consuming fifteen peanut-related products from Planters, could exchange the fifteen outer wrappers for this scholarly collection of words and images, free of charge. Each president is honoured with a portrait, a brief biography and an illustration to record the most dramatic feature of their term in office. This is usually a foreign war or the acquisition of more territory – in the case of Truman, it’s a nuclear explosion, in the case of Eisenhower, it’s a forest of placards proclaiming their undying affection for the dear leader. Some of the less distinguished occupants of the White House need no more than half a page to record their achievements – it’s comforting to note that Harding and Coolidge come into this category.

Mr Peanut, the noble impresario of all things peanut has preached the gospel of healthy and nutritious snacking since 1916 when the foppish accessories of monocle, top hat and cane were first attached to his peanut incarnation. With this publication he steps up to the task of improving young minds without entirely giving up on influencing their choice of snack in favour of his patron, Planters Nut and Chocolate Company.