My cousin sent me a link this weekend to a job advertisement for the Nutmobile, which is evidently a Wienermobile-like creation from Planters in the shape of a peanut. The job posting was from April 3rd. I was outraged. Someone copying the Wienermobile? And launching this monstrosity during the week of the NIT Final Four?? They tried to sneak it under my radar, and for two and a half weeks, it worked. I didn’t notice. Now…
Now, I’ve noticed.
But there’s a problem.
The Nutmobile existed first.
I don’t know if anyone would factcheck Planters on this, which is to say I don’t know how to factcheck Planters on this, but they’re claiming the Nutmobile has been around since 1935. The Wienermobile? Created in 1936.
Did Oscar Mayer copy Planters?
My personal theory is that during the Great Depression, people tried to combat their hunger by making food really, really big. A hot dog costs ten cents? Make it big enough, and you can feed a family for weeks! Of course, this didn’t work. The big food was all made out of metal. It was not edible, leaving its inventors with no choice but to drive it around.
We can only assume that in the 1930s, America’s roads were filled with food-shaped automobiles. Why aren’t there a lot of pictures? Because film was expensive, and because this was normal to them, and because it was the 1930s so they were a little bit preoccupied with all the other stuff happening, like the national parks being built and Hitler showing signs of aggression in Central Europe.
In short, I’m not giving Planters credit just yet. Maybe they had the idea. But more likely, this was the norm at the time, and only the Wienermobile and the Nutmobile have survived. (Here they are parked next to each other in 2016.)
