M&M's: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:44, 26 May 2025

Revision as of 04:45, 26 May 2025

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In early 1995, Mars ran a promotion in which consumers were invited to vote on which of blue, pink, or purple would replace the tan M&M's. Blue was the winner with 54% of the votes.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/candymakingincan0000carr|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/candymakingincan0000carr/page/78 78]|quote=smarties tablet candy history.|title=Candymaking in Canada: The History and Business of Canada's Confectionery Industry|last=Carr|first=David|date=2003|publisher=Dundurn|isbn=9781550023954|language=en}}</ref> It replaced tan in late 1995. Consumers could vote by calling 1-800-FUN-COLOR. Ads for the new blue colors featured a plain and an almond blue M&M character as Red and Yellow take notice of trying to do takes in the commercial by painting themselves blue where they appear on stage with [[B.B. King]] singing the blues, but the filmmakers had to cut the scene as they were not the real blue M&M's; another featured Red and Yellow holding their breath to look like the new blue M&M's, where [[Steven Weber (actor)|Steven Weber]] sees the three M&M's, Red, Yellow, and Blue; and one more featuring Weber talking to the blue M&M if he had dived into the chocolate pool, but did not.

In 2002, Mars solicited votes in their first ever "M&M's Global Color Vote" to add a new color from three choices: [[aquaAqua (color)|aqua]] ([[turquoiseTurquoise (color)|turquoise]]), [[pink]], and purple. To help the colors get votes, [[Ken Schrader]] and his [[MB2 Motorsports]] team, who was sponsored by M&M's at the time, ran four paint schemes during the [[2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series|2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season]] representing the promotion (one for aqua, one for pink, one for purple, and another one with all three colors on the car). Once purple won and was featured for a limited time, specially marked packages of M&M's were released. Finding a bag of all purple M&M's entitled American customers to a prize of 100 million [[Japanese yen]] (equivalent to approximately US$852,000), payable in U.S. dollars. Other cash prizes, amounting to over 50,000, came in [[euro]]s, [[Australian dollar]]s, [[Brazilian real|Brazilian reais]], [[Mexican peso]]s and U.S. [[Penny (United States coin)|pennies]].

Since 2004, M&M's have been available online in 17 colors, with personalized phrases on each candy on the opposite side from the "m".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mymms.com/|title=Custom Printed MY M&M's|work=mms.com|publisher=[[Mars, Incorporated]]|access-date=February 6, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211174015/http://www.mymms.com/|archive-date=February 11, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Released around Christmas, these custom-printed M&M's were originally intended for [[holiday greetings]], but are now available all year round.