Earlier this month, M&M’s got the world talking when its new spokesperson Maya Rudolph announced that she was filling the sweets with “chewy chunky clams”.
Many fans of the chocolate and social media users alike were left perplexed and confused as to why the brand had opted to launch such an odd marketing stunt. Some even struggled to apprehend whether the activation was even a joke in the first place.
The bizarre announcement was made on M&M’s’ Twitter account a week after it had announced that it was putting a pause on its controversial ‘spokescandies’ and replacing them with US comedian Maya Rudolph. It appeared that the company had chosen to place a hold on its inclusive characters following international backlash.
A clamsational new change to your favorite candy! pic.twitter.com/1kHolALjpW
— M&M’S (@mmschocolate) February 2, 2023
The move to promote a sense of inclusivity from the brand all started last September when M&M’s introduced its first new candy character in a decade – Purple. The ‘spokescandy’ intended to represent ‘acceptance and inclusivity’, with M&M’s adding that Purple’s “keen self-awareness, authenticity and confidence are the driving forces behind Purple’s charm and quirky nature”. The character also wears boots – like that of Green – who also saw its high-heels scrapped to promote a more neutral and inclusive look.
Shortly after M&M’s made changes to its little mascots, a large majority of the public began to criticise the rebrand of its cartoon characters. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson dubbed the rebrand as “Woke M&M’s” and condemned the brand for making the cartoon characters “less sexy”.
In response to the backlash, the chocolate giant announced via an online statement that it had put an “indefinite pause” on the ‘spokescandies’. The beginning of the statement read: “America, let’s talk. In the last year, we’ve made some changes to our beloved spokescandies. We weren’t sure if anyone would even notice. And we definitely didn’t think it would break the internet. But now we get it – even a candy’s shoes can be polarising. Which was the last thing M&M’s wanted since we’re all about bringing people together.”
Towards the end of the statement, the brand announced that it was “proud to introduce a spokesperson America can agree on: the beloved Maya Rudolph”.
A message from M&M'S. pic.twitter.com/EMucEBTd9o
— M&M’S (@mmschocolate) January 23, 2023
The tweet about the change in spokesperson alone received 52.4 million impressions.
Three days later – on the 26 January – the comedian revealed that she was changing the M&M’s name to MaYa’s. A week on from this the brand debuted its ‘candy coated clam bites’ announcement.
The marketing stunts did not end there.
On 12 February M&M’s continued its marketing antics during arguably the biggest advertising event in the world – the Super Bowl. During the first quarter the brand hoped to build excitement, tweeting: “keep an eye out for the second quarter”. The company then released a “please stand by” message.
Eventually, M&M’s announced that the original ‘spokescandies’ were “back for good” with a 16-second spot that saw the seven characters hold a press conference about their return, waving Maya Rudolph a permanent goodbye. Marketing decision-platform, System1, ranked the stunt as the second highest-performing commercial of the night, with Disney’s 100th-anniversary topping the list.
“The publicity around the stunt and the warm welcome back underline how crucial Fluent Device characters like this can be to brands,” System1 added.
“The first ad, with Maya Rudolph’s clam-flavored replacements, scored a rock-bottom one-star. And as the game minutes ticked by it looked like M&M’s might have made a historic fumble by not restoring the candies in time. At the last minute, though, they returned and the audience loved it, pushing M&M’s into second place on the night.”
Were all these marketing activations intentional? Were the ads all strategically released as part of one elaborate campaign, or were they just a series of PR backtracks?
The industry’s take
Gareth Turner – the founder of marketing consultancy Big Black Door – believes that M&M’s’ marketing stunts were “planned tactics” devised to earn some media coverage in the run up to and during the Super Bowl.
Turner is the former head of marketing for Weetabix and no stranger to advertising stunts. In February 2021, he lead a viral campaign execution that saw the brand put Heinz Baked Beans on top of its cereal, breaking the internet. One standalone tweet from the cereal brand received 1.3 billion views and around 1,200 media mentions.
The stunt caused pandemonium online, with big name brands like Superdrug, Papa Johns and even the NHS jumping in to ride the wave and give their take on the unique food pairing. The tweet even prompted a debate in the House of Commons.
Speaking on M&M’s recent marketing malarkey, Turner affirmed his position that all the activations were planned. “The ‘spokescandies’ are a distinctive brand asset, which will be instantly recognisable to the entire sweet eating world. Marketers should fiercely protect brand assets like that, and I respect the marketers at Mars enough to believe they deliberately played us. You simply don’t ditch something as ‘ownable’ and recognisable as that.
“System1 called it before the Super Bowl and went on to test both ads. The Maya ad bombed, with the shorter one, featuring the returning characters, being the top performing food and drink ad that aired that night.
“All this goes some way to support the idea that the M&M’s characters are among the most recognisable brand assets in the world.”
We're back. #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/3cgiiQdnHP
— M&M’S (@mmschocolate) February 13, 2023
With regards to the chocolate brand possible shunning loyal customers with its recent antics, Turner has said in the past that “as long as you’re true to strategy and not going off-brand, then you are not going to risk people losing trust”.
“It’s your job as a marketeer to make sure everything is pulling in the same direction. If you’re doing something that is pulling away from your brand and that then goes viral – well, then you may have a bit of a problem.
“If you know what you’re doing and you’re consistent, then I don’t think there is a massive risk. The reality is, most people couldn’t give two hoots about the brand and just carry on with their lives.
“If you can get a viral campaign or viral execution it helps because then you’ve got something interesting. You’ve got cut through to stay relevant and stay with people. You’ve got to fight for attention.”
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