# Help out a non-basketball fan here:  The Planters Final 4 Commercials

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-out-a-non-basketball-fan-here-the-planters-final-4-commercials/235564>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 21, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-out-a-non-basketball-fan-here-the-planters-final-4-commercials/235564 "2004-03-21T17:08:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-out-a-non-basketball-fan-here-the-planters-final-4-commercials/235564/1 "2004-03-21T17:08:48Z")

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Can anyone tell me exactly what the characters are supposed to be in the animated commercial where Planter’s Peanuts is announcing that you can win a trip to the NCAA finals?

What I can divine is only bits and pieces. One character is a turtle–I do seem to have heard of the Shellbacks. What school are they from? Then there’s another animal with an ‘M’ on his chest, must be Michigan. But it sure doesn’t look like a Wolverine. Then there’s a third creature with ‘KU’ on his chest, I have no idea what he is or where he comes from.

Lastly there’s a globular character who looks like a giant basketball. Seton Hall? Where they don’t have a mascot?

Who _are_ these strange characters, these bizarre _homunculi_

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**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-out-a-non-basketball-fan-here-the-planters-final-4-commercials/235564/2 "2004-03-21T17:22:09Z")

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> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#):
>
> What I can divine is only bits and pieces. One character is a turtle–I do seem to have heard of the Shellbacks. What school are they from? Then there’s another animal with an ‘M’ on his chest, must be Michigan. But it sure doesn’t look like a Wolverine. Then there’s a third creature with ‘KU’ on his chest, I have no idea what he is or where he comes from.
> 
> Lastly there’s a globular character who looks like a giant basketball. Seton Hall? Where they don’t have a mascot?_homunculi_

Wow. You got em’ all wrong. The turtle is the University of Maryland’s Terripin. The ball is Syracuse (NY) University’s “Orangeman”, Orangemen/women being the nicknames for its athletics teams. KU is Kansas University’s Jayhawk. The M isn’t Michigan. I can’t remember what it is, even though I recognized all the teams in the commercial last night.

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**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-out-a-non-basketball-fan-here-the-planters-final-4-commercials/235564/3 "2004-03-21T20:28:45Z")

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[From here:](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/business/media/19adco.html)

> [@](#):
>
> The basketball commercials and print advertisements, scheduled to run through the end of March, feature Mr. Peanut and cartoon versions of mascots of four universities that typically take part in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s March Madness tournaments: the Duke University Blue Devil, the Syracuse University Orangeman, the University of Maryland Terrapin and the University of Kansas Jayhawk.