Superman Peanut Butter

Not to be confused with National Peanut Butter Day or National PB & J Day, today – March 1 – is National Peanut Butter Lovers Day.

It is a day to remember the food of kings and the masses has many fathers and many origins. The  peanut paste product stands alone or completes so many combinations. Peanut butter is a multi million dollar a year industry.

Taking on the big boys, i.e. JIF, Peter Pan, Smuckers, Skippy, etc; is not an easy task. One that would be Herculean for most. Or, even a job for someone with powers far beyond those of mortal man.

A job for Superman.

Sometime in the late 1970s a maverick private label peanut butter company called Sunnyland Refining Co. chose a small advertising firm to tackle the peanut butter market. Rather than join the fray on merit, it would seek licensing to catapult it onto store shelves.

It just so happened DC Comics, a subsidy of Warner Communications, had made a company wide agreement not to whore the Superman name out for food products unless it was nutritious. Sunnyland’s peanut butter was deemed so and a partnership was formed.

Superman Peanut Butter hit grocery store shelves around 1981. 

While not affiliated with any DC Comics production, cross promotions were included in the deal. At one point Superman Peanut Butter purchasers could redeem two product labels for a free copy of Action Comics issue one. Another tie in offered coupons for Super Powers merchandise.

The brand would remain a staple of many diets for the next decade.

Peanut butter can be traced back to the Aztec and Inca civilizations. They ground roasted peanuts into a paste.

More modern dabblers include Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Quebec, Canada, cited for receiving the first patent for a method of producing peanut butter from roasted peanuts using heated surfaces in 1884.

George Bayle, a businessman from St. Louis, sold peanut butter as a snack food in 1894. The dietary aid became more of a kitchen staple when, in 1917, peanut butter was used as a source of protein during meatless Mondays when rationing was in effect for World War I.

Breakfast cereal magnate John Kellogg championed peanut butter as a meat alternative in his campaign to substitute plant based products for a healthier lifestyle.

Maybe the most recognized name in the peanut butter game is George Washington Carver. A common misconception credits him as the inventor of peanut paste. Rather, Carver merely published a document entitled How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption.

The list of peanut butter contributors continues, but you get the gist.

Sit back, enjoy a peanut butter delicacy of choice and watch Superman shill for Wall Street as we round out the day.