We need to talk about Jif® 'simply squeeze' peanut butter

During critique, it is helpful know the skills and qualifications of critics because critiques typically take place in an educational, or professional setting. This isn’t really either of those. 

As the topic may suggest, this journal is about peanut butter. I do not have any specific qualifications to speak in-depth about peanut butter per-say, but I am an avid consumer of late-night peanut butter toast. After all, I know enough about research to know that there is only one person who is right about how a product should work; the consumer. 

On second thought, I guess I could argue that this critique has something to do with product design and user experience. The former being an adjacent discipline to which I have two degrees; and the former is what I’ve made my career (user experience design, or UX Design). I should also note that I am by no means writing this in an effort to smear the Jif® name. The only way I want to smear Jif® is onto my Pepperidge Farm Homestyle Oat bread each night. No, I am writing this in an effort to air my grievances and disappointment of a product I thought would greatly improve the user experience when doing something I do several times a week: make peanut butter toast. So there you have it, my cards are on the table. Let’s get to the point. 

We need to talk about Jif® ‘simply squeeze’ peanut butter. 

There are only a few items required when making peanut butter toast. Perhaps that is why it is such a go-to snack for me. It’s easy, fast, healthy and requires very little effort. 

• Toaster

• Bread

• Peanut butter

• Knife

• Plate

The most cumbersome part of the toast making process (for me) is the cleanup. More specifically, the part where I have to wash the peanut butter off of the knife used to scoop and spread the peanut butter with hot, soapy water. As much as I love peanut butter toast, I loathe the smell of hot, soapy peanut butter. Furthermore, peanut butter in its nature is difficult to clean. It’s sticky, thick, and clings onto any object it comes into contact with. It is for this exact reason why I was so elated to see Jif® ‘simply squeeze’ peanut butter at my local Kroger.

“If it works like squeezable jelly, I won’t have to use a knife when making my toast!”, I thought.

Excited about the prospects of minimizing the required steps in my toast making process, I was willing to shell out an extra $0.15 more (100%) per ounce than the traditional Jif® jar. What I hadn’t expected was how this product would be actually work (or how poorly it would work). Operating this technological advancement of the 21st century is as expected. Squeeze the tube and peanut butter comes out. Although admittedly, it took far more effort than I expected to actually make the peanut butter come out of the tube. It felt more like I was squeezing out hardened glue.

Unfortunately, the problem lies with how* the peanut butter comes out. Through the tightly bound, plastic aperture births a tootsie-roll sized peanut butter log nearly a centimeter in diameter that is somehow resistant to melting. Squeezing this peanut butter onto my fresh-from-the-toaster toast creates a dystopian image likely to be found somewhere on a Reddit thread titled “cursed images”.

In order to use this product to properly make peanut butter toast, one still needs to use a knife to spread the peanut butter into the toast. Thus begging the question: what the hell is this good for?

It certainly isn’t good for saving money, or simplifying processes that involve adding peanut butter. It really isn’t good for getting all of your peanut butter out of a container, as it ends up looking like a spent, disheveled tube of peanut butter toothpaste when you try to squeeze out every last cent worth.

I’ve spent the better part of a week conjuring up a list of what this product is actually good for:

Applying peanut butter onto celery. Drawing with peanut butter Using peanut butter in a caulk gun Jif® making ~0.15 more per ounce on peanut butter while eliminating the ability for dads and grandfathers to use their peanut butter jars for nails and orange slice candies.

I sincerely hope this gets the attention of someone at the J. M. Smucker Company, if not only a product designer who can say “but we did the research” and prove me wrong. If it does get the attention of such a high office, do consider a redesign in which the peanut butter is dispensed more so like the 'simply squeeze' jelly, and hopefully allow for a better melting and smearing solution that the current aperture offers.