M&M's

This article is about the candy. For other uses, see M&M.

Milk Chocolate M&M's

M&M Chocolate Candies are candy coated pieces of chocolate with the letter "m" printed on them, produced by Mars, Incorporated. Several variations of the candy exist, including milk chocolate, peanut, mint chocolate and cherry cordial (available primarily during the Christmas season), dulce de leche, toffee, crispy, almond, peanut butter, white chocolate (with and without peanuts), and dark chocolate (with and without peanuts). The candies were originally manufactured in brown, yellow, orange, red, green, and violet. Violet was replaced by tan in 1949, which was replaced by blue in 1995.

• The letter "m" on each candy is a vegetable dye printed using a process similar to offset printing.

History

The official M&M's website states the idea for M&M's came from the Spanish Civil War: "Legend has it that, while on a trip to Spain, Forrest Mars Sr. encountered soldiers who were eating pellets of chocolate encased in a hard sugary coating. This prevented it from melting. Inspired by this idea, Mr. Mars went back to his kitchen and invented the recipe for M&M'S® Plain Chocolate Candies." The chocolate that the soldiers were eating were coated to prevent chocolate from sticking to their fingers. Forrest Mars was traveling with a member of the Rowntree family, "...and Rowntree went on to make Smarties, a candy similar to M&M's." After the rights were purchased by Forrest Mars Sr. and R. Bruce Murrie in 1929, they had to reintroduce them to the domestic market with a different name because there was already a candy product sold in the U.S. under the name Smarties. To identify their new brand, they combined the first initials of their last names: M & M.

M&M's are available in Crispy, Original and other flavors.

M&M's were first sold in the United States in 1941. By the time the U.S. entered World War II, American soldiers were given the candy by the United States Army because they were a convenient snack that traveled well in any climate. M&M's soon became a hit because, in those times when air conditioning was not usually found in stores, homes, or the automobile, melting chocolate candy bars were a problem; but with M&M's, the candy coating kept the chocolate from getting messy.

In France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, peanut M&M's were known as Treets until 1990. (In the UK, Treets like Minstrels came in only one color: brown.) The chocolate versions were called Bonitos until the brand became M&M's. Bonitos were identical to classical M&M's but for the white 'm', replaced on them by a series of smiley faces . This was partly due to the market dominance of the similar Smarties, which made competing under anything but a very high-profile brand difficult, with the added risk of reducing sales of the existing Treets brand. Though Treets used the same "melt in your mouth not in your hand" slogan in the UK in the 1970s, this was transferred to Minstrels when the Treets brand was dropped.

In 1954, Peanut Chocolate Candies were introduced, while the M&M's brand characters and the famous slogan "The milk chocolate that melts in your mouth, not in your hand" were both trademarked.

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M&M's store at Florida Mall in Orlando,FL

The red candies were eliminated in 1976 due to health concerns over the dye amaranth (FD&C Red #2), which was a suspected carcinogen, and were replaced with orange-colored candies. Despite the fact that M&M's did not contain the dye, red M&M's were removed to satisfy worried consumers. By 1987, the public had forgotten the scare, and the red candies were reintroduced, but they also kept the orange colored M&M's. They currently contain Allura red AC (FD&C Red #40). In Europe, Allura red AC (E129) is not recommended for consumption by children. It is banned in Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, and Norway. Instead, Cochineal (E120) is used in the red shells. In 1995, blue M&M's were introduced, and replaced the tan candies found only in Plain M&M's. Both Peanut and Plain M&M's now have the same variety of colors.

In 1988, Almond M&M's hit stores with limited release, with appearances only during Christmas and Easter times. These candies are much like the peanut variety, but with an almond instead of a peanut inside the candy. Due to rising popularity, Mars gave them full releases in 1992.

In 1990, Peanut Butter M&M's were released. These candies have peanut butter inside the chocolate center and the same color scheme as the other brands.

Around the same time, novelty M&M's were available in specialty stores, such as F.A.O. Schwarz, in 24 different colors.

In 1996, Mars introduced a new M&M candy: the "M&M's Minis". These candies are very small and are usually sold in small plastic tubes instead of bags. A video game, M&M's: The Lost Formulas, was also eventually released, based on this candy.

In 1998, Crispy M&M's were released. These are slightly larger than the milk chocolate variety and feature a crispy rice center. They are no longer available in the United States.

In 2002, Mars ran another vote to add a new color from three choices. Once again, the general public were the voters. The choices were aqua, pink, and purple. This time, purple won.

In June 2004, M&M's were spotlighted in the media when Mike Melvill, who flew a weightless suborbital arc in SpaceShipOne, the world's first private piloted space flight, opened up a package of the chocolate brand when he reached the border of space (100km) in order to demonstrate weightlessness as the candy floated in the cabin. Melvill chose the candies because they were both colorful, therefore showing up well on camera, and because once the g-level increased, if they fell into any of the controls they could be easily crushed and not interfere with the mechanisms (and maybe M&M refers also to his own initials). The stunt was unauthorized; Melvill stated that he never told his bosses that he was planning it.

In April 2005, M&M's ran the "mPire" promotion to tie in with the Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith movie release. M&M's were offered in a dark variety for the first time.

In the summer of 2005, Mars added "Mega M&M's" to the lineup. These candies are 55% larger than the traditional M&M's and are available in milk chocolate and peanut varieties. Most of the colors for Mega M&M's were also changed to less-bright colors—teal (replacing green), beige (orange), maroon (red), gold (yellow), brown (same as regular M&M's) and blue-gray (blue)—to appeal more to adults. In the fall of 2005, the mPire promotion ran again to coincide with the DVD release of the Star Wars movie.

"My Color" Wall inside M&M's World Las Vegas Strip

In 2006, Mars offered eight new flavors of M&M's via on line sales, as well as M&M's World locations. The flavors are All That Razz; Eat, Drink, & Be Cherry; A Day at the Peach; Orange-U-Glad; Mint Condition; AlmonDeeLicious; Nut What You Think; and Cookie Minster. The first five have a white chocolate and milk chocolate center with a flavored shell. The two nut flavors have an almond or peanut center with white chocolate and candy shell. Cookie Minster has a crispy center with dark chocolate and a mint flavored shell. The company also released a Crispy Mint variety in Australia. Also in July 2006, the dark chocolate M&Ms reappeared in a purple package with the Green female M&M as the mascot. In 2006, the company also trialed white chocolate M&Ms as a tie-in with their Pirates of the Caribbean promotion.

In 2006, M&M's could be ordered and purchased on line with custom phrases, replacing the traditional "M" on each M&M, excluding the Special Edition Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean designs. Released around Christmas, these phrase M&M's were meant for holiday greetings. Also, the M&M's could be chosen from 17 custom colors.

In 2007, M&M's introduced a new raspberry flavor chocolate candy that looks like the plain, but is fuschia and slightly larger, called "M&M's Razzberry Chocolate Candies."

Advertising

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M&M Vending Machine

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M&M World store

• Steven Spielberg originally approached Mars with the idea of product placement of M&M's in his movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Mars declined the offer. Spielberg later approached the Hershey Chocolate Company, who turned down the idea of using their flagship product Hershey's Kisses but chose to use Reese's Pieces instead. Immediately after the movie was released, sales of Reese's Pieces increased by 80%.

• One of the commercials for the "Help the M&Ms Find their Colors" contest used elements from The Wizard of Oz, with someone impersonating Judy Garland's voice, with her mouth timed almost exactly to her lines.

• Sponsor of the #18 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota driven by Kyle Busch.

• In 1997, Mars began a "Find the Gray Impostor M&M game" in which a customer that found a gray M&M in his or her package would be offered a cash prize of one million dollars (five hundred thousand pounds in the UK). Attorney Aron Robinson filed suit against the corporation, charging that the game confused customers who found uncoated candies that looked gray. The suit was dismissed.

• In 2000, an M&M's commercial featured Red in a fake PSA in which he says "I am not a Plain M&M, I am a Milk Chocolate M&M."

• In late 2004, custom-printed M&M's were introduced. Customers are allowed to choose two lines of 8 characters per line and up to two different phrases that will be placed on separate M&M's. Up to two colors can be chosen mixed in the bag, and customers must order a minimum of 4 bags. The two phrases are randomly mixed between the two colors, leaving you with up to 4 different variations per bag.

• In early 2005, M&M's released "limited edition" Star Wars-themed candies, tied to the opening of the Revenge of the Sith in May 2005. The limited-edition candies included a Darth Vader dark chocolate variety. A range of toys, Star Wars Chocolate Mpire, was also released by Hasbro, depicting the M&Ms mascot characters dressed up as characters from the Star Wars Universe. In 2006, M&M's released candies as a tie in with the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

• Will & Grace star Megan Mullally starred (and sang) in TV ads for M&M's in 2004 and 2005.

• Iron & Wine's cover of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" was featured on an ad for M&M's in 2005.

• In August 2006, M&M's launched an advertising campaign offering 2 million of their new dark chocolate candies for the return of Edvard Munch's 1893 painting The Scream. The painting was recovered shortly after, though no connection between the campaign and the recovery has been made.

• The Australian television talk show Rove Live for a long time, always had a bowl of M&M's present on stage for the leisure of interviewed guests. Guests often comment on this and sometimes throw M&M's into the crowd, a notable example being Daniel Johns from the band Silverchair.

• M&M's currently have recognizable "spokescandies" which appear in comical commercials: the most popular of these are the team of cynical and sardonic "Red" (originally Jon Lovitz, thereafter Billy West), who is the mascot for milk chocolate M&M's, and happy and gullible "Yellow" (originally John Goodman, thereafter J.K. Simmons), who is the mascot for peanut M&M's. Other mascots include Blue (Robb Pruitt) for almond; Green (Cree Summer) for peanut butter, the only female mascot for M&M's; purple, for dark chocolate; and Crispy (Eric Kirchberger) for Crispy M&M's, who is the only mascot not to be named after its color (orange).

• The characters Red and Yellow have also starred in their own video game "M&M's Shell Shocked" which was released for the PlayStation console by budget publisher JoWooD.

• Presently, M&M's has an advertising campaign which features The The's This is the Day and an online game where users can create M&M likenesses of themselves.

• In 2007, in conjunction with the release of Shrek 3, M&M's released "ogre" sized M&M's with milk chocolate and peanut filling respectively. In addition to the normal coloured M&M's, the Shrek edition of the chocolate candies came in green, like the color of the ogre.

• In June 2007, the figurines Devi and Shukla have also starred in the Hindi version of the Ramayana saga while eating M&Ms.

See also

• M&M World
• Dragée
• Donny Johnson
• Smarties

References

• The Word Origin Calendar (June 19, 2006), Accord Publishing, Denver, CO.
• Sharp, Harold S. (1984) Advertising Slogans of America, University of Michigan/Scarecrow Press, Inc. (Page 282)

External links

• Official website
• The History of M&M's Chocolate