Culture

A Peanut Brand Thought Naming Their New Mascot “Baby Nut” Was A Totally Good Idea

You know what they say, there's nothing more appetising than thinking about nutting.

by Michelle Rennex  3 February 2020
baby nut reactions bad planters

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

During the 54th Super Bowl, Planters unveiled their new peanut mascot with a very questionable name — Baby Nut.

The tiny peanut sprung from the dirt at the gravesite of Planters’ original mascot, Mr. Peanut. After the Kool-Aid Man sheds a tear which hits the ground, the skies clear and a tree grows. Nestled inside the leaves is Baby Nut, an undeniably adorable infant peanut wearing a top hat.

For some reason when Baby Nut is scooped up, he randomly starts making dolphin noises. After the screeching is finally over, Baby Nut with an adult man voice just says: “Just kidding, I’m back. Where’s my monocle?”

The monocle that Baby Nut references is, of course, Mr. Peanut’s most notable part of his outfit.  Unfortunately, the peanut company famously killed off Mr. Peanut in a car crash just over a week ago. When this strange event occurred, people turned the marketing stunt into a giant meme.

While everyone expected Planters to come back with a new mascot or resurrect the old one, no one was quite prepared for #BabyNut. It’s not the ad concept that’s baffling, though, it’s actually the company’s choice to call their new mascot Baby Nut.

I’m just going to say it: The highly sexual sounding name confused people who just wanted to enjoy their Super Bowl game without having to think about ejaculation.

The #BabyNut campaign had people questioning whether the marketing team had even really thought about the combination of words they chose. Some believed that the team at Planters had to have known what they were doing because no one could be THAT clueless.

While Baby Nut is pretty damn cute, it’s very hard to ignore the horrible name he has been given. Seriously, think about it. When he grows up is he going to be known as Big Nut? Or Old Nut? Perhaps even ditch the rest and just go by the name Nut? Either way, none of those options sound good or appetising.