२१ जानेवारी, २०२२

"The green M&M, previously seen in ads posing seductively and strutting her stuff in white go-go boots, will now sport a pair of sneakers."

"A description for the green candy on the M&M’s website says she enjoys 'being a hypewoman for my friends.' 'I think we all win when we see more women in leading roles, so I’m happy to take on the part of supportive friend when they succeed,' the green M&M said on the promotional site." 

From "M&Ms characters to become more inclusive" (The Hill).

I didn't know that M&Ms had become color-based characters. If you're green, you're one thing, red, another...? Is that a good lesson for the kids?

I feel so old, only able to remember an M&Ms advertisement that's half a century old — you know, the one where the peanut M&M and the regular M&M are sunning by a pool. The emphasis back then was that kids made a mess out of chocolate that's not "candy-coated." They did add arms, legs, and faces to the M&M, so they were, essentially, characters, but I don't think we expected them to have individualized personalities. Or was the peanut M&M a bit "nutty"?

What is the history of adding arms and legs to food items for advertising? Was the Kool-Aid Man first — in 1954? Oh, no, wait! Mr. Peanut has him beaten. 1916. And Mr. Peanut always had a lot of personality: He was high-class and cheerful. And what about the California raisins? You don't see them around anymore. Their time came and went — 1986 to 1994.

But back to the green M&M, which I've never seen in action. It's hard to believe the ad makers styled it as some sort of "seductive" go-go dancer, but if that happened, improvement was needed. It's funny that they went for the most flat-footed feminist concept. If you're such an achiever, Green, why are you eating candy?!

Finally, let me say that I have never before seen the word "hypewoman." I read that as "hyperwoman" first, and that sounded candy-appropriate. But "hypewoman" — that looks like it should mean huckster or con artist. Urban Dictionary tells me it's the female version of "hypeman" — someone who comes out on stage to hype up the audience before a performer comes out and may "work the side of the stage... yelling classic lines like 'Throw ya hands in the air!' 'All the ugly people be quiet!' 'When I say_________, y’all say _________!'"

And that undoes my impression that they just made Green a feminist cliché. She's actually a bit of a sexist stereotype, taking the role of supporting others. Re-experience that Françoise Gilot quote that begins the previous post:

"As young women... were taught early that taking second place is easier than first. You tell yourself that’s all right, but it’s not all right. It is important that we learn to express ourselves, to say what it is that we like, that we want."

The new green M&M is not all right. Whenever they change something that's wrong, they just change it to something else that's wrong. Wrong in a new way.

३३ टिप्पण्या:

rehajm म्हणाले...

My kiddie peers had fun with the idea the green ones made you horny. I think M&Ms ran an ad capitalizing on this idea.

Hence the green seductress…

Jon Burack म्हणाले...

"I'm a delicious peanut, but look what happens to me." (Peanut dives into pool of chocolate.)

Maybe next we will see one with a little squiggly thing dive into a pool labeled "hormone blockers," and emerge a pale green trans female M&M with squiggly thing gone. That's progress, Ann, don't you see it?

n म्हणाले...

BREAKING: Peanut M&Ms will now be allowed to identify as Plain M & Ms without having to relinquish their nuts.
MargotCleveland on Twitter.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Lazlo Toth wrote a complaint letter to Hersey, enclosing a malformed Herseyette, saying it was a defective M&M. He got a coupon, apology, and the satisfaction of needling Hersey about their hopeless brand recognition.

Kevin म्हणाले...

First World problems.

rehajm म्हणाले...

m&m introducing green in 2008…

gilbar म्हणाले...

as rehajm points out...
The Green M&M has been a Slutty Little Tramp, her hole life
That's what we love about her. What is happening today has a name; that name is:
SLUT SHAMING!!!

Mars (Candy Co) HATES WOMEN!!!! Boycott Mars Candy Co! Bring BACK Slutty Green M&M

I HATE to agree with The Rolling Stone, but! Let the Green M&M Be a Nasty Little Slut

Temujin म्हणाले...

The entire mindset is wrong. It's M&Ms people. Candy. Does candy have to make a statement? Because if so, it'll have to change as often as society's statements change. Which is to say, every few months, maybe two years at most (remember the MeToo movement? I don't either.)

M&Ms have been around since the time of World War II. We've managed to not be offended by, or not need encouragement by these little round hard covered pieces of chocolate. No. We managed to pop them into our mouths without having them prop us up mentally (though...the sugar did make us feel better).

I remember the early days of what was called 'guerilla marketing'. Just another name for those who used all avenues to hustle their brand. This current trend is inane marketing. Using all avenues to make yourself look smaller, thinking you are helping humanity with your petty little statements. In about a year there are a lot of corporations who are going to have to report to their stockholders that they have hired new Directors and VPs of marketing to stave off the flat, or massive drop in sales.

This is insanity mixed with inanity. I cringe just thinking of the corporate meetings that birthed this bullshit. So glad I've retired.

What's emanating from your penumbra म्हणाले...

The HR department must be proud.

Another character, the brown M&M, described her motto as, “Not bossy. Just the boss.”

She looks bossy to me. https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/mms-are-getting-new-look-become-inclusive-people-jokingly-think-hotter-rcna12935

The two female characters will also have a more friendly relationship, instead of the catty one they've displayed in M&M's ads, and they are now "together throwing shine and not shade."

Who says social engineering can't taste good?

and the orange one will "embrace his true self, worries and all," now that he can "acknowledge his anxiety."

How exactly does this work? Who cares. Just make the girls stronger and the boys weaker. It doesn't have to make sense.

Anyway I hope that's the last second of my life I ever spend thinking about it.

Must be slow in the news rooms. It's not like we have a world leader disintegrating before our eyes to write about.

Kevin म्हणाले...

Son, we live in a world that has candy characters, and those characters have to be guarded by MBAs with market research. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Mr. Peanut? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for the California Raisins, and you curse the candy-eating public. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know -- that removing the go-go boots from the green M&M, while tragic, probably saved lives; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

She's actually a bit of a sexist stereotype, taking the role of supporting others.

But she's doing a man's job. Hypeman's job.

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

One of the males was dumb. The other one was neurotic and a little sarcastic. The female one was smarter than the other two and very sarcastic. Yes, they did try to make the piece of candy "sexy" and "seductive" if only in a comic way. That bit of Mae West was a good touch. The female candy might be smarter than the guys, but she had her own silly side. Now what? She'll just be a know=it-all in sneakers and the guys will still be dolts? In any case, "wokeness" if that's what it is, wins them free publicity and bigger sales.

Are we really talking about this?

gilbar म्हणाले...

Temujin said...
The entire mindset is wrong. It's M&Ms people. Candy. Does candy have to make a statement?

spoken like someone that likes right side kitkats (UCK@!)
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-Right-Twix-and-Left-Twix?share=1

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

and the orange one will "embrace his true self, worries and all," now that he can "acknowledge his anxiety."

The candy coming-out story will be a big step in human progress.

It will also give new meaning to "Melts in your mouth, not in your hand."

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

Deplorable!

Scot म्हणाले...

I looked up the M&M characters on the company page. They are diverse: each is a social misfit in its own way. According to the M&M page, Green is the only one who explicitly identifies as a specific gender. Will be fascinating to watch when other colors come out of the bag. Some wikis I found report that both Green & Brown use the title "Ms.", or at least used to.

@rhhardin
The Lazlo Letters is hilarious. Novello is the King Troll I.

Fandor म्हणाले...

LOL Ann! This post and the comments is like sitting in with Bob Hope’s gag writers. You all are very funny. Thanks for the lift.

Enigma म्हणाले...

Children/teens have long pretended that candy functions as pills or drugs. Green M&Ms were indeed widely considered aphrodisiacs, and this is why the animated M&M with arms and legs was a female seductress. I once knew a naïve young man who was given an entire bag of manually-extracted green M&Ms (from a multicolor bag) by a interested young woman as sign of her willingness.

rehajm म्हणाले...

You may take it with however many grains of salt that you wish. That the brown M&Ms that are circulating around us aren’t too good. It is suggested that you stay away from them. Of course it's your own trip. So be my guest…

wendybar म्हणाले...

I'm surprised the left hasn't cancelled the brown ones yet, like they did to Aunt Jemima syrup and Uncle Ben's rice. (not to mention the Indian woman on Land o' Lakes.) They don't like POC obviously.

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

They don't like POC obviously.

Pieces Of Candy?

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Is the brown M&M sassy?

We in the West are fucking idiots, hell-bent on ruining the greatest society in the history of this sorry planet.

We are actively doing it to ourselves.

Tommy Duncan म्हणाले...

I have noticed that brown M&M's tend to under-represented in the large bags I buy. They are also clustered near the bottom of the bag. If you turn "M&M" upside down you get "W&W". This is not accidental.

mikee म्हणाले...

1. As a budding child prodigy interested in STEM, my candy commercial favorite was, and remains, "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop? Let's find out!"

Three. It takes three licks.

2. Blue M&Ms: An abomination of nature, or the brainchild of mad scientific freaks? Why not both!

3. M&M's are the only candy (I know of) depicted as realizing they are going to be eaten alive by consumers.

4. Skittles. No explanation, just Skittles.

mikee म्हणाले...

Once, far after midnight one finals week in college, I was studying Statistical Mechanics in the Chemistry library and felt peckish. I bought some Peanut M&Ms from the vending machine, returned to my desk, and carefully tore off a corner of the packet to ration out my treats one at a time, so they'd last longer.

After eating four, interspersed with studying for my Statistical Mechanics final, I realized I had eaten only YELLOW M&Ms. I tipped the next one out of the corner of the packet, and it also was YELLOW. I ate it.

Intrigued, I tipped out three more. All YELLOW. That made 8 straight of one color from a bag that probably contained less than 30 M&Ms in total. Statistically unlikely, to say the least. I ate them.

Giving the laws of probability, product packaging and late night weirdness one more chance, I dropped another single M&M into my hand. YELLOW, of course. I ate it, worriedly. NINE straight of the same color.

Somewhat distressed, I ripped the packet open and poured all the rest of the candies out onto my StatMech textbook. There were four or five of each color, including the now worrisome YELLOW. Had I not opened the packet, to observe and confirm the distribution of the candy colors, who knows what might have happened. Thirteen (13!) straight YELLOW M&Ms would have been way, way too many.

I ate the last of the candies, thinking about what just happened, then closed my book and called it a night. I was willing to pull an all nighter under normal circumstances, but when the god of late nights sends an omen, I for one wasn't ignoring the warning. Such omens are why I had stopped my normal snacks of Dr. Pepper and Chili Fritos, after a night I shudder to recall, and still cannot speak of publicly.

who-knew म्हणाले...

Nice to see Lazlo Toth getting some belated love. The Lazlo Letter came out when I was in college (mid-70s). Loved it then, reread it a couple of years ago and it still holds up.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Pretty soon we'll have an M&M that can't decide if it's Plain or Peanut.

It will be the first non-binary candy snack.

TwoAndAHalfCents म्हणाले...

They have white chocolate M&Ms and dark chocolate M&Ms. But never in the same package. Makes you question Mars' commitment to diversity.
Separate but Delicious.

Cassandra म्हणाले...

M&Ms Introduces New Trans Character Who Identifies As A Skittle
U.S.
January 20th, 2022 - BabylonBee.com


U.S.—As part of a bold new marketing strategy to promote inclusivity and appeal to less than 1% of the population, Mars, Incorporated has introduced a new M&M character who identifies as a Skittle.

"I'm gonna be honest here. We basically are doing this because it's hip and makes us look cool," said Mars, Incorporated CEO Franklin Crunchy. "And that adds to the bottom line. I think we can make a decent fortune by comparing the hardship of real trans people to a wacky cartoon character."
"Trans people deserve to be represented by M&Ms," he continued. "Our Trans-Skittle character will help us break chocolate-covered barriers in your mouth and not in your hands."

The new character, named Quinn, is an M&M that wears an "S" because they haven't had letter reassignment surgery yet. On the inside, Quinn has the same chocolate taste because it isn't able to change anything but its outward appearance.

"We just want to let the trans community know that M&M supports you and wants your money!" said the Mars CEO.

The LGBTQ+ community took to Twitter to ask why there isn't a Latinx M&M. "Do better," tweeted user @ihatemyself.

https://babylonbee.com/news/mm-introduces-new-trans-character-who-identifies-as-a-skittle

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Looks like a lot of comments were deleted after 11:12am?

Or there is a glitch somewhere...

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

Does anyone remember the bizarre "Mr. Peanut is Dead" campaign. They could have had Mrs./Miss/Ms. Peanut as a new spokesnut, or brought Mr Peanut back with another color or ethnicity or sexual preference, but instead they had him coming back to life. Mr. Peanut as Jesus?

gilbar म्हणाले...

'Not On My Watch': DeSantis Signs Executive Order That Green M&M Must Still Be Sexy In Florida

"As long as M&M wants to sell product in Florida they have to keep Green drop-dead gorgeous," he said. "I'm tired of woke progressives making everything political so I'm going to draw further attention to this and make it even more political!"

"I believe in the American right to lust after oddly sexual cartoon characters!" he added.

Mary Beth म्हणाले...

I started thinking about this post after I commented on the Vogue one. Last January, VP Harris was on the cover of Vogue, in her "iconic" tennis shoes. (There were complaints at the time about the photo that was chosen, but Vogue insisted it had to be a full-body one that showed her sneakers.)

This January, the slutty M&M quits wearing heels and starts wearing tennis shoes. I'm sure it's just a coincidence and that the slutty M&M isn't being modeled on Harris - although the only way to find out will be if we hear the green M&M talk and she's become unpleasant to listen to.