"TAKE CARE WITH PEANUTS" - Interview with Melissa Menta

Interview with Melissa Menta (SVP, Marketing and Communication at Peanuts Worldwide)

By Emmanuel Itier

Q: Tell me about the initiative and what was the goal?

Melissa: A few years ago, Peanuts was a having a world summit and we realized that people should be more mindful and also more focused at taking care of the Earth. So, this project started before this global pandemic. So, the project “Take Care with Peanuts” is about: taking care of yourself, taking care of others and taking care of the Planet. And, of course, this fits perfectly with what the World has been experiencing within the last 12 months.

Q: What impact do you hope this create and what is the target, demographic wise?

Melissa: I have been working with Peanuts for over 20 years. It was easy to figure out what to do with this project as we just had to go to the comic strips created by Charles Schulz. He created around 18,000 comic strips in 15 years roughly. All the themes we were looking to expand in “Take care…” were there. The target are kids who consume more and more visually. But I’m sure adult can appreciate the initiative as well. So, we just brought to life all of the favorite themes from the comic strips. And it became a series of one minute social messages. We always try to find new ways to educate new generations. At the end, we all love Peanuts, whether it’s your kids or you or myself.

Q: What are the main themes explored with this series?

Melissa: There are 3 pillars with this series: taking care of yourself, of others and of the planet, as I already explained. The pro social media messages that we are developing touch on one of the 3 pillars. For example, we just released one call “Speak your voice” and it’s about saying loud what you feel within. And every month there will be a new focus in relation to the 3 pillars.

Q: What challenges did you face making these mini cartoons?

Melissa: Even so I’m not an animator, I do know that creating Peanuts in animation form is, that, “Sparky”, the knick-name of Charles Schulz, was drawing these characters in not a real “human shape”. There drawn in 2 dimensions, you can see the side of the characters but in today’s animation this needs to be done in 3 dimensions. And it’s challenging to make these characters so “real”. On a marketing stand point it has been a natural fit because of the nature of what “Sparky” created. It’s all there and we just need to bring it life and expand the universe.

Q: What is your favorite character and why?

Melissa: I think the one I love the most is “Sally”. I’m very close to Mrs. Schulz. She called “Sparky”: “my sweet babboo” and Charles put it in the comic. “Sally” calls “Linus”, my sweet babboo. I have a special fondness for Sally. But of course, who doesn’t like “Snoopy”. He has the life that everyone would want.

Q: What does the world of the Peanuts stands for? What does Snoopy stands for?

Melissa: The only thing that is required from you to love Peanuts is that you are a human being. Because this universe speaks to human emotions; it’s all about joys, heartaches, love and every human experiences. It’s not like other brands where you have to love spaceships or super-heroes with super-powers. You just have to be human. This is what Peanuts and Snoopy stand for: the human in you.

Q: Is there a long-term vision with this initiative, what’s coming next?

Melissa: We wanted to do something caring for the Earth and for Humans. We just turned 70 and as the brand moves into the future and doing something good was truly what everyone working with this brand wanted to do. We just going to keep going to do good because this is what is at the heart of Peanuts.