Out: M&Ms spokescandies In: Maya Rudolph

(Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP)

Guess who the media is blaming for the exit of the M&M spokescandies in the candy’s marketing campaigns? Republicans and Fox News, of course. In today’s world, absolutely everything is politicized, including candy. It’s ridiculous.

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Anthropomorphized candy characters are not real. They are marketing tools. That shouldn’t need to be said. However, a year ago in January 2022, M&M’s parent company, Mars Inc., announced a makeover for the candy characters. They would have “more nuanced personalities to underscore the importance of self-expression and power of community through storytelling.” You can’t make this stuff up. An uproar on social media was created when consumers discovered that the green M&M would not longer wear her go-go boots, which were replaced with sneakers.

That means giving the M&M’s arms and legs that match their shell colors, instead of the tan flesh tone the previous version had. The two female characters will wear less stereotypically feminine attire now, as well — the brown M&M’s heels have been lowered to sensible pumps, and in lieu of her signature go-go boots, the green M&M now sports a pair of “cool, laid-back sneakers to reflect her effortless confidence.”

The company said the new look is part of its “global commitment to creating a world where everyone feels they belong and society is inclusive.”

Who thought it was a good idea to go woke with M&Ms? Earlier this month Mars announced that for Valentine’s Day, the company is opting for a marketing campaign of limited edition “all-female” M&Ms candy packages. The packages honor women who are “flipping the status quo.”

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The company announced the feminist-forward candy wrappers Thursday, saying it will exclusively display M&M’s female characters: the green, brown and most recently introduced purple M&M.

In addition to featuring the three female M&M’s on the wrappers, each package in this limited run will only include the corresponding green, brown and purple candy-coated chocolates.

So, that nonsense was after the debate over a ‘sexy’ green M&M. What is wrong with people? It’s candy. Marketing people are being paid to come up with this slop. Press about the female M&Ms campaign became an avenue for the media to trash Fox News and Tucker Carlson for commenting on the absurdity of wokeness in candy products.

M&M’s “spokescandies” have provoked the ire of right-wing outlets like Fox News in recent weeks after the company announced a new “Flip the Status Quo“ campaign. The campaign raised money to support women in creative industries and featured limited-edition candy bags with the three female spokescandies.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson railed against “woke M&Ms” in a recent broadcast. He made similar complaints about the candies last January after M&M’s announced a new, inclusive look.

In its statement on Monday, M&M’s said it “definitely didn’t think it would break the internet.”

“But now we get it — even a candy’s shoes can be polarizing,” the brand wrote. “Which is the last thing M&M’s wanted since we’re all about bringing people together.”

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Now a decision has been made to do away with the spokescandies and bring in actress Maya Rudolph. I like Maya Rudolph. The spokescandies are taking an ‘indefinite pause.’

Is it a candy company’s job to “bring people together?” I thought that the Mars family who owns the private company were conservative people. There seems to be an identity crisis going on here. Most likely, the woke vibes didn’t go over very well with consumers. No one needs to be lectured to about being woke by candy.

Our sister site, Twitchy, has some good tweets that express how most people likely feel about this craziness.

Mars is a private company and they can do what they want to do. But, man, someone needs to get a handle on how they should market their candy. Sales must have dropped.

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Maya Rudolph will be good for sales. I’m partial to peanut M&Ms. I can assure you that the spokescandies are not a consideration when I purchase a bag. All of this nonsense is lost on me, and I imagine I am not alone. We live in really silly times.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 21, 2024
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