What in the world is going on with M&M’s?

The year 2023 started off with a sugary bang when the candy company Mars came out with its new ad campaign reinstating many of the deemed controversial details and lore of its beloved M&M characters. 

Debates started after the company decided to bring back the more risque shoes on the Green M&M character, released an overweight purple M&M in its feminist collection, and confirmed that the Brown and Green M&M are in a romantic same-sex relationship. While many of their consumers did not bat an eye at these changes, the news story blew up all over right-leaning news broadcast channels and boycotts of the candy have been called upon.  

The mars company began producing M&M in 1941, however, the humanoid M&M characters were not introduced until 1954 when the red and yellow were presented. Fans of the candy fell in love with the loveable characters to the point that mars began adding the rest of the characters, Green and Brown. 

When the Green M&M was first introduced the character was labeled as a male. However, that changed in the early 1990s when the company decided it needed a strong female character. This change brought the go-go boot-wearing Green M&M, a fan favorite for many years. 

Members of the LGBTQ+ community for years have taken in the Green M&M as a queer icon, however, as of early 2022, she was publicly announced to be in a romantic relationship with her counterpart the Brown M&M. This announcement originally came with tons of support and the sale of M&M’s skyrocketed.

So why is it coming back into the limelight? Fox News host Tucker Carlson is trending currently for his remarks about the situation. 

“The green M&M got her boots back, but apparently is now a lesbian, maybe? And there’s also a plus-sized, obese purple M&M, so we’re gonna cover that, of course […] because that is what we do now,” Carlson said.

A year ago in January, Carlson stated that he believed the Green M&M was no longer attractive after they had removed her boots and replaced them with more suitable tennis shoes. This prompted many questions from the media. Is this rebrand necessary? Was the original design misogynistic? Why is Tucker Carlson so upset that the cartoon M&M is not “attractive” anymore? 

Now in the 2023 new year, Mars has created the “feminist” M&M pack filled with Green, Brown, and new Purple M&Ms, the packaging printed upside down to symbolize the filling of the status quo.

Immediately after, boycotts of the candy were called by self-proclaimed “conservative influencers” such as, Nick Adams. He took to social media asking for “a complete and total boycott of all things Mars.”

Student body president Shayla Dobson is an avid M&M enjoyer and stated her position on these debates. 

“M&M’s all taste the same. It is candy, why are we discriminating against it?” Dobson said.    

This presents the question, are M&M’s too woke, or is it adapting to the 21st century more than other companies?