Planters pauses Mr. Peanut funeral campaign after Kobe Bryant's death
Planters paused its ad campaign about Mr. Peanut's "death" after Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others died in a helicopter crash Sunday. AdAge first reported the news.
According to CNBC, the company will reportedly still air its planned third-quarter Super Bowl ad, which will depict Mr. Peanut's funeral. However, it will pause paid advertising on channels like Twitter and YouTube. An ad released last week shows Mr. Peanut perishing in an explosion after falling from a cliff.
“We are saddened by this weekend’s news and Planters has paused all campaign activities, including paid media, and will evaluate next steps through a lens of sensitivity to those impacted by this tragedy,” Planters said in a statement on Monday.
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Planters' decision is perhaps the only one it could make at this point, but it still feels strange. Stopping an ad campaign that trivializes death while thousands of people are publicly grieving is obviously a good choice, but hijacking grief to sell nuts was a disturbing idea in the first place. To do this is to force real mourning and joke mourning to exist side-by-side, taking up space they aren't meant to occupy together.
Today might be a good day to log off.
Chloe was the shopping editor at Mashable. She was also previously a culture reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @chloebryan.
