Peanuts out of the insurance business

Several people have contacted me to make sure I know about the announcement that MetLife is dropping their Peanuts license. There were signs that this was coming, and if it’s news it’s only because that license has lasted a ridiculously long time as licenses go. It produced some interesting commercials, and it also produced some odd things, like the political use seen below. While I feel for anyone impacted by the loss of income (after three decades of what I can only assume were substantial payments), this may also free Peanuts up for something else big. Or for nothing… I would have no problem with Peanuts being more about a great work and less about selling product. But still, I’ll miss occasionally having a Snoopy-named-and-decorated blimp sometimes parked overnight in my town.

Peanuts Free Trade ad closeup

Schulz/Peanuts news
Teen Peanuts characters in teen hands

Performed entertainment depicting the Peanuts characters aged up is a genre all its own. While there have been movies like (insert name of indy film that I just stumbled upon a few years back and now can neither recall the name of nor find any reference to), it’s been more …

Schulz/Peanuts news
25 years

Today is 25 years since Charles Schulz passed away. Tomorrow is 25 years since the final Peanuts strip ran. And yet, Peanuts is far from gone. The material is more available than it was when the strip was actually being created, with the entire run collected into books and available …

Schulz/Peanuts news
New Peanuts podcast

Peanuts fans have had a number of podcasts to listen to over the years. Currently, there’s Unpacking Peanuts (working its way through the Peanuts canon four months per episode), Talking Nuts (working its way through the canon one month per episode), and It’s a Podcast, Charlie Brown (focused on, but …