Snoopy, 'Peanuts' crew get the axe as MetLife goes corporate
After three decades of selling insurance, Charlie Brown's dog and his Peanuts cohorts are hitting the unemployment line.
MetLife announced Thursday that it's ending the longstanding association as it rejiggers its brand for a more corporate audience.
Advertising blog AgencySpy first reported rumors of the change in July.
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The shakeup comes after the company said earlier this year that it would spin off its retail life insurance business to focus more on its workplace clients.
Snoopy and the gang began appearing in MetLife commercials in the 1980s as a means of grafting a familiar face on the insurance giant.
Around the same time, the company shortened its name from "Metropolitan Life" to "MetLife" and recolored its black star blue.
“We brought in Snoopy over 30 years ago to make our company more friendly and approachable during a time when insurance companies were seen as cold and distant," Esther Lee, MetLife's chief marketing officer, said in a press release.
But that warmth is less important now that MetLife caters to business-side customers.
The 148-year-old brand said the decision was informed by market research conducted on more than 55,000 people around the world. Most respondents were indifferent.
At the height of their fame, the Charles Schultz-penned comic strip ensemble were an iconic fixture in thousands of daily newspapers. They inhabited a quirky world of running gags like the beleaguered Charlie Brown's Sisyphean quest to kick a football, Lucy's testy psychiatric help and a blanket-toting child philosopher.
Their use in ad campaigns was made possible through a multimillion-dollar licensing deal with the company that owns their rights. MetLife says it has informed the company of the deal's termination, but it was take time for the comic crew to fully disappear from all marketing material.
MetLife will also no longer contract blimps for aerial coverage of big live events, and plans for future sponsorships are unclear.
In the meantime, one can only hope that Lucy's psychiatric help includes grief counseling.
Patrick Kulp is a Business Reporter at Mashable. Patrick covers digital advertising, online retail and the future of work. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in political science and economics, he previously worked at the Pacific Coast Business Times.
