Summary
- The Green and Brown M&M's mascots caused controversy due to a minor change in their appearance, with conservatives criticizing the shift as being too "woke" and feminists arguing it was a poor attempt at inclusivity.
- A petition was created calling for the original designs to be brought back, which gained over 20 thousand signatures and was used by conservative pundits as fodder for their anti-woke argument.
- M&M's eventually retired the mascots and replaced them with Maya Rudolph but faced universal derision, leading to the spokescandies returning in a high-profile Super Bowl commercial in 202
- Mars' handling of the situation was viewed negatively.
Though they are seemingly innocuous candy mascots, the Green and Brown M&M's characters were the source of major controversy and backlash. While the M&M's parent company Mars has been using mascot characters to sell the product since the 1950s, the so-called spokescandies as they are known today didn't come into being until the middle of the 1990s. Immediately beloved, the CGI anthropomorphic confections each have their own personality and are modeled after the various colors that the sweet treat comes in. The roster grew to include nearly every color by the turn of the new millennium, and they certainly helped Mars to pump up their sales.
Perhaps one of the most successful food mascot campaigns of all time, the spokescandies have sported an impressive roster of voice talents behind the scenes including John Goodman, Jon Lovitz, and J.K. Simmons. The Red M&M's mascot has been voiced by Billy West for nearly 30 years, and he has been the glue that has held the entire ad campaign together across the decades. Even though the playful spokescandies have changed in minor ways since the '90s, a seemingly unimportant tweak to the Green and Brown M&M's mascot caused a massive backlash.
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For a time, the Green and Brown M&M's mascots were the only female-presenting characters in the lineup and their initial character designs included knee-high heeled boots for Green and tall high heels for Brown. However, in an effort to make the characters more inclusive, Green's boots were swapped out for sensible flats, and Brown was given a more manageable heel. This choice enraged conservative pundit Tucker Carlson who lamented that the green M&M was no longer "sexy" (via Salon). While it could have simply been blown out of proportion by the 24-hour Fox News content cycle, it had an effect in the real world.
Some feminists critiqued the change as a poor attempt at being inclusive (via The Independent), but most of the backlash stemmed from the conservative side who critiqued the change for being too woke. Whether it was made in earnest or in jest, a major petition was created on Change.org which called for Mars to bring Green's original design back, and it garnered over 20 thousand signatures. Though there was an edge of silliness to the aforementioned petition, it was picked up by conservative pundits and used as fodder for their anti-woke argument. Mars responded with an all-female spokescandies lineup which was resoundingly rejected.
M&M's Replaced The Spokescandies With Maya Rudolph
Following the controversy in 2022, M&M's retired the mascots and replaced them with Maya Rudolph. The SNL alum was tapped to be the company's lone spokesperson and the strange ads were meant to take the heat off of the spokescandies following the conservative backlash. However, Mars' choice was met with universal derision, and the M&M's were eventually returned in a high-profile Super Bowl commercial that told a bit of a story arc involving Maya Rudolph trying to kill them off. In the end, the spokescandies returned to the spotlight in 2023, and they seemingly survived the conservative backlash, even if Mars looks bad in the process.
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