Weekly Written Analysis 4-1

M&M’s are a current popular culture item. M&M’s are candy coated pieces of milk chocolate. The candies were first introduced in 1941 by the Mars Company. At the time of their introduction, they came in brown, yellow, orange, red, green, and violet. Tan replaced violet in 1949, and blue replaced tan in 1995. The founder of Mars, Forrest Mars, Sr., got the idea for M&M’s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating chocolate pellets with a hard shell over it. Mars created his own process for the hard candy coating in 1941 and had the process patented.

The M&M initials that are printed on the candies are derived from the initials of Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie, who was the son of the then president of the Hershey Corporation. Bruce Murrie owned 20% of the Mars Company at that time. With this alliance with the Hershey Company, it allowed Mars to use Hershey chocolate. At the time of production, chocolate was being rationed due to the war. During WWII, the candies were exclusively sold to the military due to the ability of the candy to not melt.

In 1954, the catch phrase “melts in your mouth, not in your hands” was born along with the world famous “spokes candies”. The “spokes candies” are my favorite part of the M&M candies. There is “Red” who is the cynical one, “Yellow” who is the happy and gullible character, “Blue” who is the cool one, “Green” who is the sexy female character, and “Orange” who is neurotic. These “spokes candies” have been featured in many commercials which has appealed to many kids and adults alike. They have also been featured in their own video games. In 2005, the dark chocolate variety was introduced during the Star Wars III movie premier in the Mpire promotion.

In 2004, the on-line store was introduced. This allowed people to order the M&M candies in a variety of colors with their own phrases on them. Companies have also used this to place logo’s on the candies. The online store offers the candy in a variety of colors and flavors that can only be ordered from the online store. The M&M’s come in a variety of flavors off of the store shelves. The flavors are plain M&M’s, Peanut M&M’s, Almond M&M’s, Peanut Butter M&M’s, Mint M&M’s, Mini M&M’s, and Dark Chocolate M&M’s in both peanut and plain. Over the years, different colors have been introduced via public voting.

References
“MMS.com. (2009). M&M’s.com. Retrieved June 14, 2009 from the M&M website found at http://www.mms.com/us/about/mmshistory.