The name Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe might elicit mostly blank, confused stares, but the debonair legume better known as Mr. Peanut has been the monocled mascot for nut and snack brand Planters for 105 years.
In 2020, the brand planned an audacious advertising campaign that started with the centenarian Mr. Peanut sacrificing his life to save others, then plenty of paid promotion across all media, leading to a funeral for the mascot during a Super Bowl ad with him getting reborn as a baby peanut. Planterâs death of a sales-nut campaign was abruptly derailed in early 2020, however, when tweets from celebrities reacting to Mr. Peanutâs stunt death began showing up alongside reactions to the actual tragic and real-life death of basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others when they died suddenly in a helicopter crash.
