Planters Peanuts was launched in 1906 by two Italian immigrants, Amedeo Obici and Mario Peruzzi. In 1916 Planters conducted a contest to develop a trademark, offering a prize worth five dollars for the best-designed symbol. The winner was a fourteen-year-old boy named Anthony Gentile, who submitted a drawing of a little peanut person. With this image as a starting point, Planters hired a Chicago art firm, which commissioned a commercial artist named Andrew Wallach to draw several different caricatures. Planters selected the peanut person with a top hat, monocle, cane, and the look of a raffish gentleman, which was subsequently named “Mr. Peanut.” At least, this was the story that Planters circulated. Similar peanut figures, complete with top hat, monocle, cane, and gloves, had illustrated an article in Good Housekeeping magazine in 1902.
