The Purple M&M Makes Its Debut In First-Ever All-Female Packs
M&Ms introduced its new spokescandies, the Red and Yellow M&Ms, back in 1960 and they've dominated the marketing since. The two represent the classic milk chocolate M&M and the peanut M&M. However, it wasn't until the late '90s that new characters began to appear with Blue in 1995, Green in 1997, and Orange in 1999 (via M&Ms). Out of the five spokescandies, only Green was described as female and her outfit was represented by white go-go boots — mainly because they couldn't figure out how to give her ankles while at the drawing board, per Insider. According to NBC News, Mars dropped the Mr. and Ms. tags in order to highlight the mascots' "personalities, rather than their gender" and aimed to represent a more diverse cross-section of society earlier in 2022
Back in September the Purple M&M was announced as the newest female mascot for the company. However, it wasn't the first time a purple candy had been in the mix — it was part of the original color line-up but was eventually replaced by a tan-colored M&M, which was voted to be replaced by Blue back in 1995 (via CNN Money). Purple appeared again briefly in 2002 when a worldwide vote revealed 41% wanted to see that color candy it but didn't resurface again until Fall 2022. Earlier in 2022, the characters had a makeover to provide "more nuanced personalities to underscore the importance of self-expression," per NBC News. Now, for the first time, all three female M&Ms will appear together.
Do you know someone who's 'Flipping the Status Quo?'
As part of International Women's Day, Mars — M&Ms' parent company – has decided to release a special edition version with all three Green, Brown, and Purple female characters on the packaging. The campaign, known as "Flipping the Status Quo" also aims to support "organizations who are uplifting and empowering women doing incredible work" with $1 from every packet going towards organizations such as She Is The Music, We Are Moving the Needle, Female Founder Collective, and Geena Davis Institute On Gender and Media. All these organizations aim to support women in either music, business, or creative media per PR Newswire.
In addition, the candy company wants "consumers to nominate the women in their lives who are flipping the status quo." If your nomination is a winner they could be featured by the company and be honored with a $10,000 grant. You've got from now until January 15th to put your nominations in at MMS.com/flipthestatusquo and the winners will be announced on March 8 — International Women's Day.