They could be the world’s hardest-working septuagenarians. You can find them on playing cards and puzzles, clocks and cameras, pajamas and sweatshirts.
Nearly 27 years after Charles M. Schulz drew his 17,897th and final “Peanuts” comic strip, his characters remain highly marketable properties. Peanuts Worldwide, which manages the brand, has more than 1,000 active corporate partnerships, a company spokeswoman said.
There are $10 action figures and luxury watches featuring Snoopy priced at nearly $10,000. A new Christmas special, “12 Days of Snoopy,” premieres Friday on Apple TV. Later this month, a balloon depicting Joe Cool, Snoopy’s alter ego, will join the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Brands like associating themselves with “Peanuts” characters because they are archetypal, said Stephen J. Lind, a business professor at the University of Southern California. Charlie Brown is the perpetual underdog. Linus is the philosopher. Snoopy is the dreamer.
“They’re heartwarming in the most direct way, because the original creation from Schulz was tied directly to that human experience,” Lind said. He added that he ended up with “tubs and tubs of the most random ‘Peanuts’ merchandise” while researching and writing his 2015 book, “A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz.”
Schulz agreed to brand sponsorships soon after he created “Peanuts” in 1950. By 1959, the strip was enough of a phenomenon that the Ford Motor Company had enlisted Charlie Brown to appear in ads to sell cars. In the 1980s, Snoopy and the gang began a three-decade run in TV commercials for MetLife.
Schulz had little patience for critics who accused him of selling out. For him, “Peanuts” was a commercial enterprise from the start. “My work does not hang in galleries,” he said. Before his death in 2000, the comic strips, related merchandise and brand endorsements brought in more than $1 billion annually.
Social media has helped “Peanuts” thrive, said his widow, Jean Schulz. The Instagram account for Peanuts Worldwide, @snoopygrams, has 4.3 million followers. The account for the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif., has more than 700,000. Both pages post vintage strips that introduce a younger audience to Charlie Brown’s existential dread, Linus’s security blanket and Snoopy’s flights of fancy.
“The comic strip is a story told in four seconds,” Jean Schulz said. “What’s social media? It’s sort of the same thing.”
Expect to see a lot more of Charlie Brown and friends in the years to come. In March, Sony became the majority owner of Peanuts Worldwide, increasing its ownership stake to 80 percent from 39 percent. Shortly before the $457 million deal closed, Sony announced plans to “further grow the scale of the business and further increase the value of the brand” by making it even more accessible.
Could that result in too much a good thing?
“We’re always kind of struggling with: How do you keep the brand alive, but also keep it real and genuine, and not have people get sick of it?” Melissa Menta, a senior vice president at Peanuts Worldwide, said. The answer, she continued, comes down to thoughtfulness and attention to detail.
Chris Bracco, the creative director at Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, which approves all “Peanuts” tie-ins, requires brands to use existing artwork from the comic strip and TV specials as their foundation. “There’s a universe to pull from,” he said.
Among other restrictions, partners may not flip an image so that a character would be facing the opposite direction. “It just looks wrong,” Bracco said.
Schulz drew his strips with a specific nib from the pen maker Esterbrook. These days, Esterbrook offers a “Peanuts” collection that includes fountain pens and pen sleeves. The company has sold 10,000 “Peanuts” pens to customers in 30 countries, said Brett F. Braley-Palko, its director of marketing and partnerships.
Birdieboss, a golf accessories company, released a “Peanuts” collection in July that includes Charlie Brown socks, a Woodstock cap and a Snoopy hoodie. “You can put any character into any sort of situation, and it will still feel authentic,” said Nicholas Roberts, the founder of the brand.
Snoopy, for one, has fallen in love (with Fifi, a poodle), played baseball and golf, and traveled to the moon. He has also moonlighted as a World War I flying ace and a world-famous author.
“You see him everywhere,” said Michael LeFevre, 65, a “Peanuts” fan who houses 16,000 pieces of Snoopy memorabilia at Mike’s on the Water, the restaurant he owns in St. Clair Shores, Mich.
There has been so much new “Peanuts” merchandise lately that LeFevre adds only the rarest pieces to his collection. But he appreciates that his favorite comic-strip character is still around.
“I’m all for more,” LeFevre said.
The display at his restaurant includes Snoopy rotary phones, Snoopy attaché cases and Snoopy lighters.
The twist, he added, is that he has always been too busy with the restaurant business to own an actual dog.
“A dog’s a lot of work,” he said.
