Alex Rodriguez stars in Super Bowl ad as Mr. Peanut gets into the game

Alex Rodriguez has heard the song Take Me Out to the Ballgame many hundreds of times. But this time the ball game is the Super Bowl — and instead of “buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,” he’s hanging out with Mr. Peanut.

Rodriguez will be featured in a Super Bowl ad and today Planters put out a teaser of the anthropomorphic peanut tossing nuts across the room into Rodriguez’s mouth.

“I’ve had a lot of experience coming through for my baseball teammates and my family in crunch time, but even I need help sometimes, too,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “That’s where my guy Mr. Peanut comes in. He’s there for me when I need a crunchy snack and always has my back.”

Mr. Peanut doesn’t look like he’s dressed for a football game, what with the top hat, monocle, spats and white gloves. But this year he’s going to the Super Bowl for the first time.

The Super Bowl is LIII, and Mr. Peanut is 103, so it’s about time they got together.

“The Super Bowl is the biggest snacking day of the year,” Luke Cole, director of marketing for Planters, tells USA TODAY Sports. “And Planters is the No. 1 snack brand. So it’s just kind of a perfect fit.”

The 30-second spot will run in the 10th pod of the second quarter.

Planters last ran an ad in the Super Bowl in 2008. That one focused on cashews and did not feature the well-dressed brand mascot. This time, Cole says, “the featured product is going to be our mixed nuts. Mr. Peanut is obviously a peanut, but the focus is on our entire portfolio of nuts.”

The tuxedoed goober may not be dressed for football, but that expression — an entire portfolio of nuts — accurately describes the fan bases of the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots.

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