Here's Why Planters' Baby Nut Has Twitter So Mad
If you don't recall (2020 has been pretty chaotic, we don't blame you for having a short memory), snack food brand Planters made headlines back in February for their decision to go ahead with a bizarre marketing stunt revamping their mascot, Mr. Peanut, as a baby. The brand had initially chosen to put the ad campaign on hold after the tragic death of basketball star Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter in a helicopter crash in late January, but decided to relaunch the campaign during the Super Bowl with an ad which began with a funeral for the late Mr. Peanut and ended with the mascot being reborn as a baby, dubbed "Baby Nut."
Planters recently sent out a press release stating that Baby Nut has officially grown up and introduced the world to now-21-year-old Peanut Jr. Fox News reports that the press release stated, "Time moves fast in peanut years and Baby Nut hit a magical growth spurt that caused him to grow from a baby legume to 21-year-old Peanut Jr." To celebrate the mascot's entry into adulthood, Planters is launching a contest asking fans to post to social media describing their dream birthday gift in 10 words or less between August 11th and August 24th, 2020 using the hashtags #MakeMyBirthdayNuts and #Sweepstakes. They state that three winners will be chosen to win $2,100 cash, delivered to them by the "NUTmobile."
Twitter hates Peanut Jr. possibly even more than they hated Baby Nut
Proving to continue to be an incredibly unpopular campaign, the mascot's birthday announcement did not go over as well online as Planters likely hoped. The brand uploaded a video to the social media platform Twitter, featuring the all-grown-up mascot (newly christened "Peanut Jr.") confirming that, within the course of the year, they fell off a cliff and died, were reborn as a baby, and have now turned 21. The caption on the video reads, in part, "Now someone get this peanut a beer!"
Twitter users immediately began responding to the post, stating that they don't understand why Planters has decided to continue with this ill-fated ad campaign which nobody cares about, with some users going so far as to suggest the brand fire their marketing team. Popular comments left on the video were particularly harsh towards the mascot itself, with one comment from user @be_em_doubleyou saying, "Happy birthday, I hope it's your last [red heart] you are an abomination [sparkles]," and receiving over 1,000 likes.
While the backlash to the newly aged mascot could be considered a little severe, we are in the midst of a global pandemic, ongoing protests, and an incredibly tense presidential election, so now is perhaps not ideal for brands to be making any "big announcements" that turn out to be ad campaigns. As they say, timing is everything.