M&Ms Super Bowl 2023 Publicity Stunt Was Worse Than Bad, It Was Boring

February 17, 2023 7:20 AM

It started with an arguably bizarre move in general - M&Ms worried about their spokescandies and their inner lives. Leading to predictable right-wing outrage - Tucker Carlson Is, Once Again, Mad About ‘Woke M&Ms’ But then! Maya Rudolph is the new face of M&M’s. Polarizing spokescandies are taking a ‘pause' “They failed to engage us in the story, but they have caught our attention based on a crisis,” USC Annenberg’s North said of the candy brand’s social campaign. “I’m not sure if that’s such a positive move.”

The M&M's Super Bowl ad is a massive anti-climax

Another day, another M&M's controversy. Where to start with this one? Well, the headline news is that Mars Wrigley released its much-anticipated M&M's advert at the Super Bowl. This advert was supposed to clear up the confusion after M&M's rebranded to Ma&Ya's, a take on new spokesperson Maya Rudolph's name, as well as reinstate the 'spokescandies' and return the characters to the heart of the brand.

But the advert (see below) is more than a bit weird. It shows the comic Maya Rudolph advertising new Ma&Ya's, which are apparently candy coated clam bites.


What the M&M’s commercial shows about Super Bowl ads today

The much-hyped M&M’s Super Bowl commercial that was supposed to clarify the status of the brand’s “spokescandies,” which were put on pause after they were criticized by right-wing pundits, finally aired on Sunday, and it was, well, confusing.

Terrible M&M ad campaign comes to predictable end

M&Ms' Super Bowl 2023 Publicity Stunt Was Worse Than Bad, It Was Boring

posted by tiny frying pan (43 comments total)

Beyond being confused about American culture in general after watching the Super Bowl, I was particularly confused how joking about clam filled M&Ms was hoped to help sales. I was further confused how jokingly changing their name to Ma-Yas was helping the brand.

The whole Super Bowl, from the strange commercials, to Rihanna frumping around in a red sleeping bag surrounded by oompa loompas standing on giant iPhones, to the bad pass interference call to end the game left me unimpressed with the state of America
posted by karst at 7:33 AM on February 17, 2023 [15 favorites]

It's striking how much everyone saw it coming. When this announcement broke, I saw someone suggest that M&Ms must be covering up some kind of catastrophically awful product or labor issue by picking a fight with Fox News; the less cynical folks pointed out that every weird brand thing in January inevitably turns into a Superbowl ad. The only people who were willing to take this at face value were the ones who wanted to get really mad about something. Normal people just figured we were being tricked, with the difference being whether we assume that the trick was neutral (extra attention for Superbowl ad) or evil (coverup).

Superbowl ads are starting to feel like the Thanksgiving issue of cooking magazines. Like the advertisers basically know what they're supposed to be doing, but it seems boring because they do it every year, and they have such a big audience, so can they do something Different that is also, crucially, Not Very Different? It's so joyless!
posted by grandiloquiet at 7:51 AM on February 17, 2023 [7 favorites]

The whole Super Bowl, from the strange commercials, to Rihanna frumping around in a red sleeping bag surrounded by oompa loompas standing on giant iPhones, to the bad pass interference call to end the game left me unimpressed with the state of America

I dunno. I thought Rihanna was pretty great (that puffy coat was a nod to the late, great Andre Leon Talley ), though I will admit to having a soft spot for Rihanna. To me the most US of American thing about it was how fast it her performance was declared literally satanic by the right wing press.

The M&Ms ads weren't great, but I'm still broady pro-Peanut M&Ms on road trips.
posted by thivaia at 7:59 AM on February 17, 2023 [17 favorites]

I could be cynical about it all but I do think we've evolved a much better filter when it comes to these marketing shenanigans.

20 years ago if M&Ms said "yeah we're putting fish in the candy" there would probably have been a significant amount of people that took it at face value and got all upset about it. Google had a field day with this during that era, announcing all kinds of crap to people that forgot to look at the calendar on 4/1.

Now we see all this stuff and go "yeah, it's just another TikTok marketing-campaign-slash-outrage-generator" and we shrug.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:06 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]

I generally enjoy Maya Rudolph's work so I was looking forward to something good coming out of this but nope. I wonder how much of the final vision they told her about before she had to commit to doing it, and whether she's disappointed, happy to have been part of a weird attempt at 'something' or just matter of factly happy to pocket a paycheck.
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 8:09 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

I was particularly confused how joking about clam filled M&Ms was hoped to help sales. I was further confused how jokingly changing their name to Ma-Yas was helping the brand.

....I thought all that was the obvious set-up for "okay, never mind, we're bringing the original characters back", and the whole thing was a "just kidding" all along. Kind of how the Planters Peanut company spent a month telling everyone they were going to kill off their "Mr. Peanut" logo icon during their Super Bowl ad - but then "surprise", Mr. Peanut had a baby Mr. Peanut who looked exactly like him who could "take over".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:14 AM on February 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

I was particularly confused how joking about clam filled M&Ms was hoped to help sales. I was further confused how jokingly changing their name to Ma-Yas was helping the brand.

The contrast to the actual product reminds people that it exists, which probably has some subtle impact on people's impulse purchase behavior. How often did you think about M&Ms before all of this? You'll probably unconsciously notice them more often when you're in a store.
posted by AndrewInDC at 8:29 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I hate this timeline.
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:36 AM on February 17, 2023 [10 favorites]

I really don't get how/why anyone, let alone media-savvy folks, are taking the new commercials seriously. They're pretty obviously gentle "fuck you"s aimed Carlson and his faux outrage, and aren't intended as any sort of "serious" ad campaign, other than maaaaybe getting people to want the spokescandies back.

Folks are seriously overthinking this shit.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:39 AM on February 17, 2023 [16 favorites]

Folks are seriously overthinking this shit.

This whole thing seemed like a reaction to Tucker. "You're seriously upset that our SPOKESCANDY isn't SEXY enough? Like, this is actually on your radar? Okay ya fuckin weirdo, we're going to do a WHOLE CAMPAIGN just for YOU. We will FIRE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. We will replace them with MAYA RUDLOLPH. We will put OYSTERS in CANDY. HAPPY NOW, YOU FREAK?"
posted by nushustu at 8:54 AM on February 17, 2023 [14 favorites]

The Super Bore is the most overhyped media show imaginable.
It is a foot ball game. All the other stuff is American culture on steroids/acid/fat/caffeine. The commercial is only one teeny part of the "ad". We now take you to the thousands and thousands of blog posts, web sites, TV news, who purport to "Rate the Super Bore Ads!" It is all part of the overhyped show.

M&M probably loves every mention. The Barbara Streisand Effect is well known. ( I know this isn't exactly the Streisand effect, but the same rules apply: Talking good about me is good! Talking bad about me is good!"

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Streisand_effect

The game was pretty good, by the way.
posted by pthomas745 at 9:16 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

This was clearly a stunt from the jump and I can't help but think that people are being deliberately obtuse about it.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:08 AM on February 17, 2023 [11 favorites]

Well, here we all are thinking about M&Ms much more than we probably would have, so it looks like something in the campaign worked.
posted by Liquidwolf at 10:08 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

I, too, am bummed there aren't as many fuckable spokescandies as there should be.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 10:21 AM on February 17, 2023 [16 favorites]

It's all outrage these days. If you're not mad about (or afraid of) something, regardless of how trivial it is (or how little danger it represents to you), how can you be sure you're alive?
posted by tommasz at 10:37 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I bought M&Ms this week based solely on this ad campaign. I didn't even watch the Super Bowl! But I saw some stuff about it online, I thought it was funny (not the ad, which I still haven't watched, but the concept), I already like M&Ms (well, the ones with peanuts) and it reminded me that I should buy some, so I did.

Sorry, apparently I am the reason these dumb ad campaigns keep happening.
posted by joannemerriam at 10:40 AM on February 17, 2023 [9 favorites]

I was disappointed. I hate the regular characters, and love Maya Rudolph. But the ad itself was definitely not well thought out and the whole thing was a boring bumble.
posted by tiny frying pan at 11:29 AM on February 17, 2023

really don't get how/why anyone, let alone media-savvy folks, are taking the new commercials seriously. They're pretty obviously gentle "fuck you"s aimed Carlson and his faux outrage, and aren't intended as any sort of "serious" ad campaign, other than maaaaybe getting people to want the spokescandies back.

Folks are seriously overthinking this shit.

I agree. M&M ad executives are overthinking this shit.
posted by tiny frying pan at 11:31 AM on February 17, 2023

This was clearly a stunt from the jump and I can't help but think that people are being deliberately obtuse about it.

(I'm thinking people here are mistaking why I posted this. I don't think anyone actually was "taken in" or bamboozled about anything with these ads. To me, the dreary weird choices by large companies with regards to Superbowl ads was the actual story.)
posted by tiny frying pan at 11:33 AM on February 17, 2023 [6 favorites]

I'm thinking people here are mistaking why I posted this. [....] To me, the dreary weird choices by large companies with regards to Superbowl ads was the actual story.

I have a hunch that maybe throwing shade at some of the other ads might have made that clearer. Because there were some lame-ass ads this year.

(....One bright spot, though - the Bud Light ad where Miles Teller's wife Keleigh is on hold in a customer service queue, and he brings her a beer and starts a dance party with her and their dog to the hold music. I've watched that thing about 3 times a day for the past week.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:50 AM on February 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

I only wanted to focus on this particular weird tale. I didn't notice and as of now, do not remember, any other ads. So they did something! However, it's of dubious value, as some of the links agree.
posted by tiny frying pan at 11:52 AM on February 17, 2023

That's fair.

The Bud Light ad is okay, right? I love that thing.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:53 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm confused why Mars didn't simply draw from the large corpus of Tucker/M&M fanfic that already exists.
posted by credulous at 12:29 PM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]

As a person who worked as an advertising creative for 20 years, here's my take on it.

M&Ms do not have to explain what they are or try to convince anyone of anything. Anyone in the USA with enough pocket money to buy M&Ms knows exactly what they are. All this is meant to do is put M&Ms on your mind. Through threads like this one. Or segments on Tucker Carlson. Or TikTok memes about the ads. Or about the sexy character shoes or whatever.

M&Ms were going for "brand engagement" with these kinds of ads and promotions. M&Ms (and a thousand other products) produce news segments that your local teevee stations can show for free! It's less work and money the station has to spend between the commercials it airs. Brands pay to have their products discussed on the Today Show, etc.

So here we are talking about M&Ms. Even saying "I hate that the world has come to a silly debate about M&Ms" is brand engagement. Even vociferously hating on M&Ms for whatever reason is brand engagement. Saying "that ad was stoopid and dumb!" Congrats, you now have M&Ms on your mind. You might be likely to buy them when you see them. Or not. But even discussing them negatively or positively helps entrench them into the American consciousness. It makes M&Ms part of The Discourse. Part of our lives. Maybe 17 months from now you'll buy some M&Ms at an airport. Or not.

It's to keep the brand "relevant" not even necessarily to sell more product (though that's a thing they are looking to do as a side benefit). I think they have largely been successful.
posted by SoberHighland at 12:44 PM on February 17, 2023 [14 favorites]

"M&Ms (and a thousand other products) produce news segments that your local teevee stations can show for free!"

When a brand does pay for coverage on a news segment is the station required to disclose - with a "sponsored by____?" Or is there an inserted segment discussing branding changes just presented as legitimate national news?
posted by Selena777 at 12:50 PM on February 17, 2023

I think it depends.

I worked freelance at a PR firm. We were working with Glade air fresheners. Glade spent a million bucks (or whatever) getting real scientists to do experiments that could prove "X scent can do Positive Thing"

The one they came up with was that the scent of vanilla can repress cravings for food. Or decrease your perceived appetite or something. So Glade paid the scientists for the study, and found a charismatic scientist that was also on payroll to do an appearance on The Today Show. The segment was basically "How different scents can affect human behavior" and there was a variety of scents in the segment. The scientist went through a table full of scents that were both natural (Sprigs of pine, a pine cone) and artificial (Glade air freshener, a pine scented candle) and discussed how pine scent does X or is at least believed to do X by some people. "Some say the smell of lavender is relaxing..." But the climax of the segment was "Scientists at XYZ Lab did a study of scents on appetite suppression." They found out in an experiment that a majority of people reported reduced appetite when vanilla scent is in the air. So they had real vanilla seed pods on the table, but also Glade Vanilla candles burning and other Glade products on the table with the logo showing. The scientist didn't directly mention Glade products, but they were there, visible on the table while the segment was going.

So Glade paid for the experiment (apparently legit results) and they also paid the presenter-scientist, and they helped pay and put together the segment for Today, scripting it, getting the props together, etc. And they pay Today show for the air time.

Shows like Today (many others, too) routinely do this. Products PAY the show to be featured like this example. And these paid segments are broadcast between commercials for other products. So the Today Show gets free content, plus gets to air paid advertisements (some Glade ads in the mix as well!). I'm not claiming every segment on these shows works this way, BTW.

This is just an example and this was about 8 years ago. I was not directly involved in producing the segment I'm talking about.
posted by SoberHighland at 1:23 PM on February 17, 2023 [7 favorites]

Last Week Tonight did a segment a few years ago on news product placement.
posted by mmascolino at 1:37 PM on February 17, 2023 [3 favorites]

IMO, M&Ms has come out with a bunch of different flavors in the past few years and that they are messing with spokescandy outfits and fighting Tucker Carlson with the main cast rather than highlighting their actual R&D shows they are flailing about at marketing their products.

Anyone in the USA with enough pocket money to buy M&Ms knows exactly what they are.


Sure, they know what the main ones are, but what about all the different flavor combinations? Maybe maybe not, but at least every time Coke comes out with a new flavor they put some bucks getting the word out.


It makes M&Ms part of The Discourse.
I'm sorry but "no", or just because advertisers say things like this doesn't make it true. If it does, then Elon buying Twitter is 'part of The Discourse', and the increase in negative opinions about Tesla cars and decrease in advertising dollars to Twitter itself (both measurable outcomes) is just part of The Discourse. This is the equivelent of bad coaches saying 'trust the process'. At some point, results matter.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:02 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

Instead of that fake clams flavor with Maya, they could have elevated one of their actual new flavors and kept nearly everything else the same. See, I just improved their commercial.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:03 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

At some point, results matter.

Of course they do. M&Ms and similar products don't bank on boosting sales through national TV ads... they do it with in-store promotions, direct response online stuff, coupons and such. The big Superbowl ads aren't specifically about selling more M&Ms. That's how ad budgeting works.
posted by SoberHighland at 2:18 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I mean... indirectly, of course they want to sell more. You aren't wrong, but as a larger strategy that money for Super Bowl is spent on brand awareness, not spent specifically to boost sales. If it does boost sales? All the better of course. But there's about 1000 layers of different types of ads, promotions, digital ads, merchandising, direct response stuff, in-store marketing, etc, etc, etc, and each of those things plays a part in the overall strategy.
posted by SoberHighland at 2:23 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

M&Ms and similar products don't bank on boosting sales through national TV ads....

Not sure about that.
Pepsi Zero Sugar, Pop Corners, TMobile, Google Pixel Phone, Sketchers, Planters, multiple movies, and multiple car manufacturers all came with new product offerings during the Super Bowl, and generally with better ads.
posted by The_Vegetables at 3:01 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

It was an annoying waste of money. Ya'll just need to leave stuff alone.
posted by lextex at 4:02 PM on February 17, 2023

As good a place as any to link my most popular tweet. 5 years later and I'm still getting like notifications.
posted by brundlefly at 4:20 PM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

Folks are seriously overthinking this plate of M&Ms.

posted by LizBoBiz at 4:23 AM on February 18, 2023

I miss the Bud Bowl.
posted by Melismata at 8:34 AM on February 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

One of my only claims to fame is being friends with the red M&M.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 1:31 PM on February 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

One of my only claims to fame is being friends with the red M&M.

Interesting! One of my favorite ice-breaker type questions to ask people is "Who is the most famous person you've ever touched hands with?"

My answer- Maya Rudolph!
posted by wats at 3:27 PM on February 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

I, too, am bummed there aren't as many fuckable spokescandies as there should be.

"What is it?"

"I have absolutely no idea."

"Is that supposed to be the point?"

"I think so, yeah."

"Was it supposed to be that sexy?"

"I really don't know. I don't know how I feel about it, other than unbearably turned on."

"Me too. That, and I really, really want a Whatchamacallit."

"Oh, yeah. That too."
posted by Ghidorah at 2:19 AM on February 19, 2023

I am wondering what Carlson is saying about M&Ms privately.
posted by aiq at 8:42 AM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm confused why Mars didn't simply draw from the large corpus of Tucker/M&M fanfic that already exists.
posted by credulous at 3:29 PM on February 17


I really do not want to believe this is real but am not googling it on the off chance it is.
posted by TedW at 12:46 PM on February 19, 2023

I'm too embarrassed for humanity. It's like really bad circus.
posted by lextex at 1:13 PM on February 19, 2023

What the fuck are M&Ms?
posted by loquacious at 1:33 PM on February 19, 2023