Mr. Peanut
Visitors to Planters.com don't have many opportunities to interact with the dapper Mr. Peanut. You can't take a tour of his office. He won't sing you a song. You can't make him dance (which was actually an option up until a recent site update). In fact, Planter's lead pitchman doesn't do too much other than stand still and grin proudly.
The monocled legume is so remarkably non-interactive when compared to some of his brand icon brethren, it would be easy to overlook the importance of his online existence. But, if you're visiting Planters.com, it's impossible to overlook Mr. Peanut. He's in the page header. He's in the page margins. In fact, there isn't a single page on the site that doesn't feature Mr. Peanut. He's everywhere and his silent-but-omnipresent existence helps make an important point regarding interactivity and traditional brand icons.
For all the interactive bells and whistles available to marketers, the fundamental yet considerable power of brand recognition still applies in the online world. In his current form, Mr. Peanut is limited to GIFs and JPEGs, but his static presence hasn't lost any value just because he can't bust a Flash-animated move. The character's presence, while simple in the execution, still exudes decades upon decades of brand development.
