Last week, Mr. Peanut became a trending topic as Planters started promoting ads on social media apps that announced the death of its 104-year-old mascot. The marketing campaign was intended as a lead-up to the Kraft-owned snack company’s Superbowl commercial, starring Wesley Snipes and Matt Walsh. While the 30-second clip of Mr. Peanut and the actors experiencing a car accident is still set to air during this Sunday’s event, Planters has decided to dial back the ads of Mr. Peanut’s demise in light of the passing of Kobe Bryant.
On Sunday afternoon (Jan. 26), it was reported that the NBA legend was killed in a helicopter crash while he was travelling with his daughter Gianna to her basketball game in Thousand Oaks, California. Seven other passengers also perished in the crash, including John Altobelli, his daughter Alyssa Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli, Mamba Academy coach Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester, her daughter Payton Chester and pilot Ara Zobayan.
In the wake of this tragedy, Planters has revised their plan to advertise death-related posts on people’s social media feeds. Planters said in a statement that it will “evaluate next steps through a lens of sensitivity to those impacted by this tragedy. The company added that “at this point, the pause impacts only paid advertising on channels like Twitter and YouTube, and some other outreach in the immediate wake of this tragedy. No change has been made to our plans for Super Bowl Sunday.”
