Just in case you needed more proof we live in the dumbest of all possible timelines, M&M’s are dropping their spokescandies after backlash from Fox News and other (mostly conservative) commentators, replacing the anthropomorphic chocolates with Maya Rudolph.You know about Tucker Carlson's response to the earlier redesign, but the Fox response to that recent marketing effort was truly unhinged:
The spokescandies first appeared in 1954....
In Jan. 2022, Mars, Incorporated announced they were restyling the M&M’s logo and the looks for their spokescandies — mostly changes to their shoes — to be more “inclusive,” as well as giving the female Green and Brown characters “more prominent placement” to achieve “a little bit more gender balance.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson was one of the most vocal critics of the redesigned spokescandies, panning them as “deeply unappealing and totally androgynous.”
Another marketing campaign launched at the beginning of this year again drew fire from the right when the candy featured packaging with only their female spokescandies, printed upside down with a slogan about “supporting women flipping the status quo.”
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum expressed concern that Mars, Incorporated’s “focus” on making M&M packages featuring only female characters is emboldening China....And now the spokescandies are gone, which leads the folks at Gateway Pundit to invoke a favorite slogan:
“I mean, if this is what you need for validation – an M&M that is the color that you think is associated with feminism – then I’m worried about you,” she said. “I think that makes China say, ‘Oh, good, keep focusing on that. Keep focusing on giving people their own color M&Ms while we take over all of the mineral deposits in the entire world.”
Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe added, “China’s also pushing all this through TikTok.”
Meanwhile, co-host Emily Compagno suggested Mars has taken away the agency of the M&M characters and, by extension, women.
“Once again, there’s also stripping everyone of agency because remember, they took the heels off Mrs. Green, or green M&M,” she opined. “They put her in sneakers because wearing heels was somehow detrimental because women who choose to wear heels must not be able to think for themselves. They must be doing it for a bad reason. Everything about this is wrong. And also, we already have the California raisins being all the different sizes We don’t need M&Ms to be different sizes too.”
Get woke, go broke.Right-wingers have succeeded in making this campaign a burden for the company, but did the campaign fail? Did Mars, the parent company, "go broke" after introducing these changes starting in January of last year?
... As expected, their ‘woke’ spokescandies caused a major backlash with consumers.
... their new, woke marketing strategy failed....
No. As the Financial Times reported last summer:
Mars, the intensely private chocolate and pet care group, has revealed annual sales of almost $45bn — higher than Coca-Cola’s — as chief executive Grant Reid stepped down.Obviously, the revenues of $45 billion weren't all from M&M's, or even sweets -- I didn't know until today that the company was also in the pet care business -- but the firm seems to be doing just fine.
Reid, who took Mars into veterinary services and healthier snacks, is leaving after eight years of what the family-owned US company called “unprecedented” growth.
And no, I don't believe the phony right-wing outrage earlier this month compelled the company to make a last-minute switch to a live spokesperson. The Super Bowl will take place in less than three weeks. If you're planning to introduce a new ad on the Super Bowl, you don't just film it in a couple of days. Big-budget Super Bowl ads require months of time and effort.
The company was still rolling out "woke" marketing as late as a few weeks ago, even as it was putting the finishing touches on a change of strategy. It seems clear that plenty of money was rolling in all the time M&M's were "woke." But who needs all that aggravation from Fox? So Fox is the bratty child in the backseat who got the adults to pull over. Bravo.
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