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Planters gets back into the peanut butter business
Mr. Peanut, before his new re-design.
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HOST: As of today Mr. Peanut is going back to selling peanut butter. There hasn't been a Planters brand of peanut butter in this country for several decades but its parent company Kraft has decided to re-enter the market -- with a kick-off commercial today on Facebook .
As our senior business correspondent Bob Moon
tells us, the new pitch isn't aimed at kids.
BOB MOON: Smuckers has Jif, Unilever has Skippy, ConAgra has Peter Pan. Kraft hasn't sold peanut butter in the U.S., even though it acquired the Planters brand a decade ago. Now, the company hopes to carve out a niche, by deviating from what's been an almost universal pitch for peanut butter over the years:
TV AD: Choosy moms choose Jif.
COMMERCIAL JINGLE: Mama loves me, and I got a hunch, that she'll always put Skippy, in my lunch.
TRIONA SCHMELTER: Over two-thirds of peanut butter volume is consumed by adults, and not kids.
Triona Schmelter is senior director of marketing for Kraft. She points out targeting the adult market is a natural outgrowth of Kraft's health-oriented focus with the Planters brand.
SCHMELTER: We have seen the usage of peanut butter growing among adults, I think with the realization that it's a very tasty way to get great nutrition.
Don't expect the new ad campaign to be all serious. Planters has had fun lately with a rival to its own Mr. Peanut named Alejandro Almond.
PLANTERS AD: Did someone call Alejandro? Oh, he's so bold! Well, you know what they say about almonds. Ole!
Today, a new character joins the mix: Get ready for no kidding Peanut Butter Doug.
I'm Bob Moon for Marketplace.
I have enjoyed Planter's products for years and was excited to look at the ingredients of your newly marketed Peanut Butter, only to be very disappointed and left it on the shelf. It is so sad that so many food companies like Kraft, take risky chances with America's health by modifying foods with unnatural products, such as hydrogenated oils. The body was never created (or never evolved) to be able to handle the abnormal ingredients such as artificially hydrogenated oils that are put into foods today. If America cannot afford the cost of health care, maybe it is time America concentrated on good health instead of sales at any cost. Kraft/Planter's can pat themselves on the back for doing such a good job of trying to line their pockets while helping to bring America to our knees. A strong nation needs healthy citizens. I'm sure your product passed many taste tests and I am fairly sure you can cite articles that state artificially hydrogenated oils are not proven to be harmful or as harmful as partially hydrogenated oils. Planter's/Kraft needs to take the lead and make only natural healthy products and educate Americans that if we truly care about our families and their physical and emotional health and educational performance, we will choose their foods with care. Just how much money did you waste to develop and market another sub-standard peanut butter? Nevermind, I really don't want to know! But as long as America spends huge amounts of money on developing and buying sub-standard products, we cannot expect for be financially stable.
Dear Marketplace,
I enjoyed your Peanut Butter piece, on that I found a key element missing from the core of the story...nutrition. Will the new Kraft 'peanut butter', of which may be possibly sporting a Planters Peanut 'Monicle and Cane' cartoon brand, be selling on people a truly "tasty way to get great nutrition" as Kraft's marketing director has stated.
Peanut butter is nutritious simply because it's ground up nuts, and like it better almond alternative, is healthy in proper, "natural" amounts....however processed nut butter is anything but healthy.
For example "Jiff" and other brands in the past have removed the natural oils and refinements (found to be nutritious and beneficial to health) and replaced them with "hydrogenated oils" as well as added chemically processed sugars, the former of which have become such a pervasive health concern the State of California has ban these "trans-fat" in restaurant chains and widespread baking distributions ...trans fat is a large component of many current low-cost peanut butter brands and is a direct byproduct of "hydrogenated oils" seen in the "ingredients" portion of food nutrition labels.
What ever cute and clever brand appeal Kraft may choose to compel consumers... what will be the end result on public health?? ...by which the unknown quality of this future product is already being 'sold to us' with a "health oriented focus."
Thank you for your work and all the production and efforts taken to make marketplace a great show and one of few unique links left by which to understand our world and ....'our' markets.
-Anthony
