‘Desexification’ of M&M’s Strikes Fear into the Hearts of Conservatives

Due to the unprecedented spread of fear and outrage from conservatives after M&M’s took away Green’s (yes, the green M&M’s character) chunky boots, the company will be indefinitely retiring their cartoon spokecandies. “We get it—” the company posts on their social media accounts, “—even a candy’s shoes can be polarizing. Which was the last thing M&M’s wanted, since we’re all about bringing people together.” To replace the iconic spokescandies, M&M’s is appointing American comedian Maya Rudolph, whom the company feels confident will “champion the power of fun to create a world where everyone feels they belong.”

The company faced scrutiny, criticism, and pushback since updating its characters over the past years, and evidently “desexualizing” Ms. Green by replacing her go-go boots with sneakers was the last straw. In a segment that went viral, Fox News host Tucker Carlson expressed his exasperation with the new “woke” M&M’s designs, piteously lamenting, “M&M’s will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous, until the moment you wouldn’t want to have a drink with any one of them.”

M&M’s updated their characters in January 2022, announcing the replacement of Ms. Green’s shoes as well as Ms. Brown’s stilettos. They also announced that the orange M&M would embrace his anxiety. And then this January, M&M’s introduced Ms. Purple, the very first female peanut M&M’s mascot. This sparked rumors that Ms. Purple was transgender. As you can imagine, conservatives went nuts.

Of course, Tucker Carlson has had much to say about this. “Woke M&M’s have returned,” he reported mid-January, “The green M&M’s got her boots back, but apparently is now a lesbian, maybe, and there is also a plus-sized, obese, purple M&M. So we’re going to cover that, of course. Because that’s what we do.” Sharing similar sentiment like that of Carlson, 20,000 people have signed an online petition to “keep the green M&M sexy.”

Ms. Purple was introduced to be included in an all-female character branded M&M packet to “celebrate women everywhere who are flipping the status quote.” A small portion of the profits from these “all-female” candy packs were to be donated to nonprofit organizations which support women in the music industry. But the backlash the company quickly received nearly buried this tidbit. And finally the Mars candy company has had enough.

What was supposed to be a good-natured publicity stunt preceding this year’s Super Bowl has stirred up conversations about brand participation in politics. More so than not, marketers agree M&M’s “woke” marketing stunt was counterproductive. They also say it felt inauthentic to the brand’s humor. But what do you think? Is there a place in today’s increasingly polarizing world for edgy media stunts which tap into politics?