M & M Toxic Culture

Sexy M&Ms and Toxic Culture

Faces glued into an eternal smile, non-threatening features, round, colorful bodies, and white gloves. Do any advertising icons come to mind? You might not be able to pick out one immediately, but I would guarantee that any citizen of a few years or more in America would recognize these figures. M&M characters have existed in media since 1995 and are prevalent to this day, and I’m not surprised to realize that one of my earliest, decipherable memories involves M&M advertising. At the time, the display towered over me; I could see the twin holes on the sides of the yellow M&M and I begged my mom to buy me candy. The marketing must have been effective right? The character reminded me of the characters on local tv shows

and in the picture books I was beginning to comprehend. One of my friends even had a lamp with the red and yellow M&Ms as the post. If a single glance at M&Ms is enough to influence us to buy their product, how do they do it? M&Ms capitalize on false associations to sell their product to consumers. Therefore, we consumers should not buy M&Ms based on advertising. M&Ms distract consumers from the actual quality of their products through design choices, cultural assumptions, and by exploiting sexuality.
Despite the plethora of M&M ads today, even just one is indicative of Mars® advertising tactics.

The first advertisement I will be analyzing appeared on the back of the 50th anniversary edition of Sports Illustrated in February of 2014 without any text on the page itself. Green M&M appears as the lone figure on a backdrop of freezing mountains and banks of snow. The predominantly chilly and muted color palette of this ad matches the cold and bleak season it was published in. Green M&M is an anthropomorphic piece of round green candy with sultry eyes, full lips, pale arms, and pale legs. Despite being dressed in thick shoes and gloves Green M&M seems to be exhibiting a case of paradoxical undressing, a possible effect of extreme hypothermia where the victim begins to feel paradoxically warm and in most cases will attempt to undress. Instead of removing a matching coat, she seems to be pulling away her green outer layer to reveal her brown inside. She makes eye contact with the viewer with parted lips and a raised eyebrow, asking a silent question we can only assume, though the fact that her crotch is at roughly the center of the image could give us a clue (Mars® Back Cover). For the rest of the essay I will identify this ad as “Green’s

Hypothermia.”
Continuing with the theme of Green M&M, our second advertisement focuses on an interaction between her and red M&M. In this 1997 advertisement run in an unidentified magazine, a grinning Red M&M waves mistletoe over Green M&M who seems to scowl and avoid his advance. In fact, the coldest color on the ad is green M&M. She is far colder than the warm yellows and reds in the background. Her words do even more the emphasize her cold attitude: “Don’t EVEN think about it!!” Beneath her feet the text reads: “Red and Green “M&M’s” Chocolate Candies. Together for an EXTREMELY limited time.” Behind them is a warm photograph of a Christmas scene, including a tree overstuffed with presents. In many ways this ad is the antithesis of Green’s Hypothermia: The juxtaposition of a cold Green on a warm background, her raised eyebrows this time showing her disgust, and her choice to ignore the viewer and focus on Red M&M (Mars®). For the rest of this essay I will refer to this ad as “Mistletoe Mistake.”
Thirdly, I chose an ad that does not feature green M&M.

This ad mirrors the cold landscape of Green’s Hypothermia but in the form of a research laboratory. Published in June of 2010 in The New York Times, it features Orange M&M, an anthropomorphic pretzel, and a cold, human, researcher. Orange M&M questions the researcher: “You’re putting him where?!” Below, the text reads: “A Crunchy Pretzel Inside M&Ms® Candies.” Both texts are in a rounded, fun font. Orange M&M is the first of the series to look outright fearful, and the pretzel and the researcher are the first individuals to appear both threatening and unhappy. Behind the pretzel is a blueprint showing that the pretzel will go inside of Orange M&M (Mars® B4). I will refer to this ad as “Scaredy

Orange.”
All three ads were originally printed in magazines, but consumers didn’t need to be literate to be influenced. Since these M&M ads use little to no logical appeal to sell their products, they rely heavily on Ethos and Pathos. The first step M&Ms use to sell their products is by proving the ads and therefore the products, pose no threat to us. From the shapes of the M&Ms to the basic fonts, most objects are round and appear soft. Just like we pad sharp objects and give children round toys to avoid harming them, we give people round and soft images to show that they pose no threat. Out of six characters in the ads, five are both small and fully visible in the frame of the image. The M&M characters are small and share features with human children, including: larger eyes compared to their faces, round limbs, and short stature. Because the characters are fully visible in the image we know they aren’t hiding any weapons or threats to our safety.