By Heillie Santana, 11th Grade

Known worldwide as the candy that melts in your mouth and not your hand, M&Ms has a long history of being most people’s favorite candy. First created in 1940 for the US Army, M&M became a popular candy even in the post-war years. However, this popularity didn’t last for long, and in the mid-1990s M&Ms were just another candy. This is where the stars of this story come in. 

Now, having a mascot was nothing new to M&M. The earliest appearance of a character was all the way back in 1954, when M&M was launching their new peanut variety. However, these characters were different. The original cast of the anthropomorphic candies consisted of Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green and all of them having their own distinct personalities. With Brown, Orange, and Purple later being added to the mix.

Since then, these M&Ms would appear in every commercial. With Red and Yellow starring in the famous Christmas-themed M&Ms commercial, “They Do Exist!”, that still airs to this day. However, in recent years, M&Ms has made some changes to these characters that stirred some controversy.

In early 2022, M&Ms decided to change the footwear of two of its characters, Green and Brown. Green’s   high-heel go-go boots that she’s worn since her debut in the 90s’, were now to changed to comfy converse. Brown also sported heels that were much more causal than her previous stilettos. Conservatives such as Fox News host Tuker Carlson complained about the new design change. Stating that the change of footwear made the characters less “sexy”.

That’s not where the complaints end though. Remember the purple M&M I mentioned earlier? Well not many people were happy with the introduction of this new character either. The character had been designed to represent acceptance and inclusivity. Again, not many people were happy with this choice. With Tucker Carlson, again, taking a dislike at the characters design by stating ““Woke M&M’s have returned… there’s also a plus-sized, obese purple M&M.”

Now, M&M has come out with their latest change to the characters and that is… not having them at all! That’s right, M&Ms has now decided to completely replace all their anthropomorphic chocolate candies with a real human face now. Gone are the spokecandies and hello to Maya Rudolph. The famed American comedian will now become the spokesperson for the candied chocolates, and will appear in an M&M Super Bowl commercial. In their announcement of this change M&M stated, “In the last year, we’ve made some changes to our beloved spokescandies. We weren’t sure if anyone would even notice. And we definitely didn’t think it would break the internet. But now we get it – even a candy’s shoes can be polarizing. Which was the last thing M&M’s wanted since we’re all about bringing people together through colorful fun,In the last year, we’ve made some changes to our beloved spokescandies. We weren’t sure if anyone would even notice. And we definitely didn’t think it would break the internet. But now we get it – even a candy’s shoes can be polarizing. Which was the last thing M&M’s wanted since we’re all about bringing people together through colorful fun”. Obviously this is a reference to the footwear redesign as I mentioned earlier. 

Before you say it, yes many people were again upset by this. However, both M&M and Maya Rudolph herself are very excited by this decision. Rudolph told People, “I feel like this [ad] has so much of what I love to do, which is make people laugh obviously, but also, have an element of joy to it.”. 

The M&M commercial will air on February 12th, during the Super Bowl LVII at the State Farm stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

References: 

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-the-mms-characters-2016-3#now-mms-is-turning-to-maya-rudolph-as-its-new-spokesperson-moving-away-from-its-spokescandies-8 –Lara O’Reilly and Alex Bitter

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/01/23/mms-candy-mascots-put-on-indefinite-pause-amid-tucker-carlsons-attacks-on-their-alleged-sexuality-and-weight/?sh=1f1abcac697c – Marisa Dellatto

https://people.com/food/super-bowl-2023-maya-rudolph-mms-ad/ – Sabrina Weiss, 2023

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2023/01/24/purple-mms-controversy-explained-as-new-mascot-gets-roped-into-old-drama/ – Eve Edwards, 2023