Peanut Elves

The peanut elves on this cover are the most recent addition to the anthropomorphic gallery. When I first saw the cover illustration for this peanut butter recipe pamphlet, my response was “this is great!”, but after thinking about it for a while the whole thing started to seem a little creepy to me. A wild eyed “junior” munching away on cookies from the snack jar seemingly oblivious to the fact he is being spirited away to some enchanted place by a band of peanut men. Common knowledge that children can be lured by the sweet tast of candies and cookies makes me think the “Snack Jar Plan” is a sinister scheme. The cover forest depiction is eerily reminiscent of a Grimms Brothers fairy tale. It is my guess the illustrator was influnenced by German cuture, perhaps a concept developed directly from the story of Hansel and Gretel. As the date of publication is 1946 by “National Peanut Council, Inc.”, we must say for sure the recent war with Germany was fresh in eveyones mind. Because I have read Grimms Fairy tales, I conclude that the boy being escorted into the woods will probably be eaten by the peanut men..... “The Snack Jar Plan”.