The M&M's spokescandy campaign crushed. Here’s why.

“America, let’s talk” about M&M’s brilliant spokescandy campaign and how the brand surprisingly dived into the middle of the Culture War and emerged poised to capture a bigger Gen Z audience. From right to left and everywhere in between, the iconic candy brand garnered an astounding amount of earned media for a well-orchestrated campaign that climaxed at the ‘23 Super Bowl. The M&M’s campaign touched all corners of the digital space, connecting with younger and diverse audiences through a story of inclusivity.?

To understand M&M’s spokescandy campaign, we can use the concept of the StoryWorld. We use StoryWorlds at Shareability as the creative well from which our brand clients draw their stories. As a constantly evolving bridge between content direction and deliverables, we can look through the lens of a StoryWorld to see how M&M's extended their influence into resonant areas aligned with their audience. The brand mastered three core elements of the StoryWorld - TONE, PERSONAS, and CULTURAL IDENTIFIERS - and then took advantage of a controversial moment to set up a novel approach for their brand story.

Candy’s Leading Voices: the M&M’s StoryWorld

M&M’s went into the Super Bowl with a solid StoryWorld foundation; a wealth of lore, creativity, and audience connection from which they could draw. The spokescandies are themselves highly recognizable cultural identifiers, with each candy color having a unique persona, and the StoryWorld has a clear tone built on wry, self-aware, and often irreverent humor.??

So it’s no surprise that people paid attention when, on January 20, 2022, M&M’s announced a new global commitment to “create a world where everyone feels they belong.” The first step in the campaign included a fresh, modern take on the looks of the iconic spokescandies, refreshing their colors, personalities, and – most importantly – their shoes. The green M&M took off her go-go boots and replaced them with sneakers, the brown M&M replaced her stilettos with a comfier block heel and the new purple M&M made a bold entrance wearing sensible boots.?

Shoes are a cultural identifier that signifies beyond the brand and spokescandies. Changing shoes meant changing the culture around the brand. And as proof, what was intended to be an inclusive campaign quickly became a symbol of “the liberal woke agenda” that fueled a right-wing storm. Fox News host Tucker Carlson responded to the M&M’s refresh in a segment, stating that?

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. That’s the goal.

While some may question Carlson’s understanding of the line between fact and fantasy, what isn’t in doubt is that his segment went viral on TikTok . Suddenly everyone was talking about M&M’s, with a petition to “keep the green M&M sexy” garnering over 20,000 signatures. The response came to seem almost part of the campaign, deepening the narrative and mythos of the M&M’s candies with every new article and pundit’s quip.??

The M&M’s StoryWorld: Making Candy out of Crisis

And the story was just getting started. Few people had right-wing pundits debating the relative sexiness of a cartoon candy character on their 2023 bingo card, but the M&M’s StoryWorld took another swerve when the company released a statement on January 23, 2023, announcing the indefinite pause of the spokescandies and creating a left-wing storm. In their statement, M&M’s said “we definitely didn't think it would break the internet. But now we get it - even a candy's shoes can be polarizing.” Moving forward, Maya Rudolph would be the new M&M’s spokesperson, serving as “Chief of Fun” for the Super Bowl LVII M&M’s advertising campaign, with “Ma&Ya’s ” replacing M&M’s. Fans of M&M’s criticized the brand for bowing to right-wing pressure, with one fan commenting , “Sooooo, you just allowed the extreme right to force cancellation of you?! Why would you actually cave & do that?” M&M’s quickly became the official mascot of the Culture War, angering both sides and getting a plethora of press coverage as a result.

While many brands might have caved in the face of this controversy, M&M’s used it as an opportunity to evolve their StoryWorld and dramatically expand their presence through integrations with other brands.?

?So while the left and the right argued, M&M’s further developed the personas and touchpoints of their characters, as the spokescandies undertook activities that reflected their personalities and the irreverent tone of the StoryWorld:

• The green M&M became a “shoefluencer” on Zappos’ Instagram , collaborating with streetwear creator Jazerai Allen-Lord .?
• The orange M&M focused on helping others with anxiety, becoming a meditation content host on Spotify .
• The brown M&M was a guest host at Cheddar News .
• The purple M&M pursued her dream as a singer, collaborating with popular vocal coach Cheryl Porter on a “Happy Birthday” video on TikTok/Instagram.
• The red M&M spent his time auctioning M&M collectables on eBay to the highest bidder.?
• The blue M&M became an ESPN sports broadcaster.
• The yellow M&M was hired as the new spokescandy for SNICKERS .

Against Carlson’s suggestion that “you wouldn’t want to have a drink with any one of them,” M&M’s used their StoryWorld to further personify the spokescandies, to give them new life, a new point of view, and new audiences. People became deeply engrossed in the spokescandies' lives, rallying behind the candies’ various pursuits and showing support for the brand. By having a clear StoryWorld established – with characters, narrative, and the emotional investment of the audience – M&M’s was able to mine the icons of candy and capture attention in ways that normal advertising would miss. By having a fully realized set of candy personalities that people honestly cared about, M&M’s was able to move the campaign beyond just the brand's own lane and into 7 different markets. The campaign felt authentic because of the deep knowledge that M&M’s had about what made each candy character unique and loveable.?

The Super Bowl as the Spokecandies’ Big Moment: A StoryWorld about Belonging and Inclusivity

After the "breakup" of the spokescandies, M&M's used the 2023 Super Bowl as the big moment to capitalize on all of their previous StoryWorld work. During the game, they released a surreal, humorous commercial starring Maya Rudolph advertising clam-filled M&M’s. Although it didn’t perform well according to standard audience metrics, it hit the mark of M&M’s classic irreverent tone and core fans in the know went crazy, calling the ad “hilarious” and “goofy”.

M&M’s brought the StoryWorld narrative full circle when, during the second quarter of the game, a press conference-style commercial appeared on the screen and the M&M’s spokescandies announced their return. After a wild ride, all was finally right with the M&M’s StoryWorld.

Was the Super Bowl ad campaign worth it? The press conference commercial earned 4.8 stars from System1 , showing that it was one of the top food and beverage commercials. But M&M’s accomplished way more with their StoryWorld work than they did with any one Super Bowl ad. The crucial lesson of this campaign is that when the StoryWorld gets deeper, people engage more, and the brand benefits.?

As Tim Staples writes in Break Through the Noise, “The core of human emotion…often boils down to a sense of belonging.” By giving their spokescandies diverse backgrounds, personalities, and passions, M&M's celebrated human differences and inclusivity and told a story about belonging.?

And what’s more, M&M’s told this story with a sense of fun and irreverent absurdity that reflects what M&M’s and Mars stands for at its core: “a world where everyone feels like they belong through the power of fun.”?

Looking Towards Future Generations

M&M’s multifaceted StoryWorld speaks directly to Gen Z. The spokescandies leaned into social media, music listening platforms, traditional media outlets, and online communities to explore their passions during their hiatus.?

The M&M campaign sparked debates and got people talking about the brand. Right-wing parties criticized M&M's "woke agenda," while left-wing parties were momentarily disappointed with the brand's stance on diversity and inclusion. That said, the brand reasserted its purposeful mission (using the power of fun to include everyone) leading up to and coming out of the Super Bowl. In addition to bringing the spokescandies’ unique personalities to life, the brand managed to take a polarized and serious conversation and inject it with humor, ultimately rallying all sides to celebrate the characters’ triumphant return.? It will be fascinating to see how the brand leverages its position as a thought leader to champion future generations and amplify its commitment to inclusivity. Our bet is that they’ll be embracing this purposeful approach for years to come.?