I mean, you knew I was gonna.
And before we start, do not think I’ve just gone and cranked out some Bagging On Another Creative’s Hard Work post, because it couldn’t be less true. Nothing bad has happened here. The art looks good, the copy on the website is cute and fun, and it’s clear that the creative team had a good time doing it. And if I happen to think the pomp and circumstance surrounding the whole thing might be a leetle bit silly, I mean… look at our industry.
Anyway, Mars, Inc., decided they needed to keep up with a “more dynamic, progressive world,” and so, with great fanfare, they rolled out some redesigns and reconceptions, and it was probably more the fanfare than the actual updates that made me think:
Which is basically, like, the entirety of my opinion on the matter.
But never let it be said that Caperton Gillett won’t mine her own content for more content and talk more about her own opinions than anyone is really interested in hearing, so here’s more opinion on The Brand Update That… I Mean, Like, Sure?
The Brand Update That… I Mean, Like, Sure?
Like, I just… I mean, I guess so? It’s cool that they’re thinking about it. I mean, I don’t really remember Mars taking a ton of flak for being insufficiently progressive. From time to time, someone out there in Internetland will poke their head up to complain about the green M&M being too sexy, because apparently the whole aphrodisiac-M&M urban legend passed them by and also they are aroused by anthropomorphic candy, which says way more about them than it does about the brand. But there isn’t exactly a flourishing movement around it. So a brand making a positive move without it being a response to criticism is refreshing.
(The other end of the scale, of course, brings us the people who are pissed off because after the redesign they’re no longer aroused by the anthropomorphic candy, so I’m just saying that maybe people who have sexually charged opinions about your sugary mascots don’t need to be the drivers of your brand decisions, is all.)
And I get wanting to update your mascot(s). Mars busted out their first talking M&Ms in 1954, and the current incarnations have been kicking around since 2012, so sure, a glow-up isn’t out of line. I can’t express enough that I give Mars full credit for wanting to “[create] a world where everyone feels they belong and society is inclusive” — it’s more than a lot of people and brands are doing right now. It’s just that doing it by way of changing a green M&M’s shoes and making the red one less of an asshole… On the spectrum of Things A Brand Can Do to Change the World, this isn’t even in the Retiring Aunt Jemima zone, and the size of the party you throw for your socially conscious rebrand might should be proportionate to the extent to which Orange tying his shoes at long last gives people with anxiety the kind of representation they’ve been longing for in the mass-market candy sphere, or else you end up with…
But, like, whatever, y’know? It’s fine.
Preachy SJW Corner
Since we’re taking a moment to briefly stumble into a more serious, social justice-y corner of an otherwise bright playground, I’m going to get on my Humorless Feminist high horse and say: You don’t have to put Green in sneakers to de-objectify her. Heeled knee boots don’t have to mean she’s trying to be sexy — they could just mean she’s trying to be fashionable. A woman (or, like, candy, or whatever) shouldn’t have to change her footwear just because some rando thinks it’s sexy and makes assumptions about her because of it.
But in the end, I mean… sure, cool. It’s cool that Orange is finally embracing his true, neurotic self, and that Green and Brown are supportive buds, and that Red has been softened into a gentler, more entertaining kind of abrasive, and that Brown finally got some block heels in recognition that an eight-hour workday in stilettos is an absolute bitch, and whatever part of her circular candy body is her lower back is definitely giving thanks.
So you go, Mars, Inc., and BBDO. I think you did great. I mean, maybe give Green a cute pair of booties or lug-soled loafers or something, because I sincerely don’t think she’d downgrade straight from knee boots to Stans in the name of “effortless confidence.” But it means a lot that you care, so thanks for wanting to make the world a better place, one anthropomorphic candy at a time.