M&M’s Campaign Empowering Women Highlights Female Spokescandies

Mars Inc.’s M&M’s recently wrapped a massive “Flipping the Status Quo” campaign spotlighting its female spokescandies that was intended to empower women. The effort kicked off in January with the launch of limited-edition packs of milk chocolate, peanut butter and peanut M&M’s containing only Purple, Brown and Green colors. The Purple character had been introduced in September 2022, but this was the first time a package contained purple candies. "The M&M's brand is on a mission to use the power of fun to create purposeful connections as we work to create a world where everyone feels they belong," Gabrielle Wesley, Mars Wrigley North America chief marketing officer, said in a media release. "Women all over the world are flipping how they define success and happiness while challenging the status quo, so we're thrilled to be able to recognize and celebrate them — and who better to help us on that mission than our own powerhouse spokescandies Green, Brown and Purple?" The brand pledged to donate $1 from every pack sold from Dec. 28, 2022, to April 30 (up to $500,000) to She Is The Music and We Are Moving the Needle. Mars also distributed $200,000 worth of donations to Female Founder Collective and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Another $200,000 was awarded, broken down into $10,000 grants to 20 women who are flipping the status quo in areas such as girls’ sports and mental health care. Nominations for the grants were accepted through MMS.com from Jan. 5-15. The winners were chosen by the M&M’s FUNd Advisory Council and revealed on March 8 to mark International Women’s Day through posts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. M&M’s also tapped six female creators to produce works inspired by the female spokescandies such as streetwear from Ashlee Muhammed and a song by Aint Afraid. The effort enjoyed a huge amount of support at retail. National floorstands and quarter-pallets stocking the limited-edition packs appeared at retailers including Alberstons, ShopRite and Circle K. At Kroger they flanked a display fixture for Mars’ M&M’s, Skittles, Starburst and Snickers that stocked large packs of Mars’ Dove and M&M’s along with variety packs from category rival Hershey Co. QR codes on the displays linked to a campaign page within MMS.com. Account-specific pallet displays at Walmart and violators at Meijer directed shoppers to information on the campaign within each retailer’s website. The effort also stirred up culture wars controversy. Before his departure from Fox News Channel, former host Tucker Carlson declared that “Woke M&M’s have returned,” reviving criticisms of the brand he first aired in January 2022 after character redesigns gave Green sneakers instead of high-heeled boots. In response, M&M’s issued a statement saying that they hadn’t meant the candy’s shoes to be polarizing given the company’s goal of bringing people together. The message said that M&M’s would be taking an indefinite pause on using the spokecandies and instead would be tapping actor and comedian Maya Rudolph as the brand’s new face. However, this shift turned out to just be a stunt tied to the brand's Super Bowl ad, where Rudolph introduced new Ma&Ya’s clam candies. Those are unsurprisingly poorly received, leading the spokescandies to reclaim their status and say that they are “back for good.”

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