"Candy girl, won't you come out tonight."
Mars Candy updated their animated brand characters.
The Green M&M was too slutty.
"At Mars we believe that in the world we want tomorrow, society is inclusive. And, as one of our most iconic brands, M&M’S® is announcing a new global commitment to create a world where everyone feels they belong."
Those are fighting words.
With all the problems in the world, the kerfuffle over M&Ms animated brand spokespeople is the most trivial. Yet even its triviality makes a point. Nothing is too small to fight over. [Note that M&M is a registered trademark of Mars, Inc.] A great part of America considers itself to be losing a war of values and norms to tyrants of the educated, liberal, establishment who relentlessly push an agenda celebrating diversity and inclusion. They feel dissed and under attack. Their leaders are fighting back. Even animated candy brand characters are a trigger.
The character change was an opportunity for Tucker Carlson at Fox. The Mars candy people probably thought it was a harmless and generally good thing to update their brand. They already had built-in opportunity. Multiple colors--rainbows--are associated with diversity. They have different colored candy but they are all the same inside, a perfect message. They may have thought that their Green M&M character sexualized and objectified women in a way that would not stand up to criticism in a #MeToo world. The character wore go-go boots. She had big eyelashes. She looked ready to go out on a Tinder date, suggesting she meet you at her place.
She had been in a commercial where she was moaning in bed. She was alone, eating M&Ms and doing who knows what else.
The new Green M&M wore tennis shoes, not high heels. She looks healthy and cheery, but not overtly sexy. If there is a Tinder date with her, it starts at a Starbucks, not her bedroom. Here is a screen grab from the commercial Mars created to introduce the character changes:
The Mars people were, in fact, making a statement in favor of diversity and inclusion. M&Ms are diverse in color and they share space. That has meaning. "All are welcome here" the ad says, and "everyone feels they belong." It was a political statement.
Here is the ad: M&Ms For All Funkind.
The Mars company may have thought the ad was in the tradition of the iconic Coke ad of 1971, "I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company. It's the real thing." Take a minute to remember the ad and the good old days when it was OK for diverse people to sing in harmony.
What was possible in 1971 is not possible now. Businesses are caught in a dilemma, pushed toward inclusion by their Gen Z employees and a corporate environment where diversity is a norm. Businesses with national footprints appear caught off guard by rural and conservative America. Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Tucker Carlson understood that America. They amplified the backlash to a changing demographic and to the increasing visibility of diverse races, genders, religions, and orientations. Disney was the most prominent target in 2022, and Ron DeSantis made the most of it. M&M is the most recent, with Tucker Carlson the spokesperson.
Carlson could pick a fight over an M&M because it was yet another norm being adjusted. The Green M&M became less feminine. Her de-gendering is another step in the changing world, like the changed "spokesperson" not "spokesman.'' Afro-American studies courses moved Black Americans from nameless "extras" in the background of American history into the foreground. They were half the population in parts of the American south, but most were as nameless as other chattel in the traditional rendering of American history. Now they are making claims to share the speaking parts. It is unsettling and illegitimate to many Americans, including to DeSantis, who majored in History at Yale. It was a norm change to fight. The Mars people changed the Green M&M from hottie to human, and gender norms are a battleground to defend. Carlson smashed a bag of M&Ms. How dare they!
Mars shelved its animated brand characters. “We’re all about bringing people together," they wrote, but those are fighting words to about half of America.