50 Fun Facts About M&M's

In what year did M&M's first go into production in the United States?

Forrest Mars received his patent for the coating process on 3 March 1941. The first factory was on Badger Avenue in Newark, New Jersey.

The two Ms stand for Forrest Mars and which partner, whose father ran rival Hershey?

Bruce Murrie held a 20 percent share and the deal guaranteed Hershey chocolate during wartime rationing. He sold out to Mars in 1949.

Forrest Mars got the idea for M&M's after seeing Spanish Civil War soldiers eating what?

Smarties, Rowntree's of York's sugar-shelled chocolate beans, gave Forrest Mars the idea; the shell kept chocolate from melting in Spanish heat, and Mars patented his own coating process in 1941.

Who was M&M's first big customer?

The US Army was the first big buyer: during the Second World War the candies went almost entirely to the military, because the hard shell let soldiers carry chocolate in tropical heat.

Which of these was NOT one of the original 1941 M&M's colours?

Orange was not in the 1941 line-up of red, yellow, green, brown and violet; violet gave way to tan in 1949, and orange only joined the mix when red was dropped in 1976.

M&M's longest-running slogan, introduced in 1949, promised the candy melts in your mouth, but not where?

Melts in your mouth, not in the hand: the line sold the whole point of the hard sugar shell, and Mars trademarked it in 1954.

The printed 'm' on each candy was originally which colour when it was introduced in 1950?

Black was the first colour of the 'm', stamped on each candy from 1950; it changed to white in 1954 and is printed on one side only.

Peanut M&M's, the first alternative variety, launched in 1954 in which single colour?

Tan was the only Peanut M&M's colour at the 1954 launch; other colours were added in 1960, and the Yellow spokescandy was at first simply called 'Peanut'.

Why did Mars drop red M&M's in 1976?

A public scare over red food dyes: Red No. 2 was banned in 1976 as a suspected carcinogen, and although M&M's did not use it, Mars dropped red to avoid confusion; orange took its place.

Red M&M's returned in 1987 partly thanks to a joke campaign started by a student at which university?

Tennessee: Paul Hethmon, a University of Tennessee student, founded the Society for the Restoration and Preservation of Red M&Ms in 1982; red came back in 1987 as a sixth colour alongside orange.

When M&M's fans voted in 1995 on a colour to replace tan, which won with 54 percent of the vote?

Blue won the 1995 vote over pink and purple; millions phoned 1-800-FUN-COLOR, and B.B. King sang the blues in the launch commercial.

Mars's first 'Global Color Vote' in 2002 added which colour for a limited run?

NASCAR driver Ken Schrader ran cars painted for each candidate colour. A bag of all-purple candies won one lucky American 100 million yen.

Since 1958 about half of all M&M's have been made in which New Jersey town?

The other half come from a plant opened in Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1978. The original 1941 factory was in Newark.

In 1982 Mars declined to feature M&M's in which Spielberg film, handing a windfall to Reese's Pieces?

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial went to Reese's Pieces instead; Mars reportedly feared the alien would scare children, and Reese's sales are said to have jumped by as much as 300 percent.

Which rock band's tour rider famously demanded a bowl of M&M's with all the brown ones removed?

Van Halen's rider banned brown M&M's as a test: brown candies in the bowl meant the promoter had not read the technical rider, so the crew re-checked the staging and rigging.

Which colour M&M was the subject of a 1970s urban legend that it was an aphrodisiac?

Green: the rumour shaped the flirtatious Green spokescandy and inspired all-green Valentine's bags in 2008, though no colour has ever tasted different from another.

Who created the modern CGI M&M's spokescandies in 1995, having earlier made the California Raisins?

Will Vinton's studio animated the wise-cracking spokescandies for BBDO's 1995 campaign, a decade after his stop-motion California Raisins; the new characters were pitched as more sardonic than typical food mascots.

Which actor originally voiced the sardonic Red spokescandy?

Jon Lovitz voiced Red in the 1995 launch ads; Billy West later took over, while John Goodman and later J.K. Simmons voiced Yellow.

Ms. Brown, the 'Chief Chocolate Officer' unveiled in 2012, is voiced by which actress and singer?

Vanessa Williams voices Ms. Brown, introduced in a 2012 Super Bowl ad as the brand's 'Chief Chocolate Officer' and the first new female spokescandy since Green.

In a Super Bowl LII ad, Red wished to become human and was played by which actor?

Danny DeVito played the human Red: after finding a lucky penny he wished to be human so no one would try to eat him, and then got hit by a truck.

Which comedian did Mars name as spokesperson when it 'paused' the spokescandies in January 2023?

Maya Rudolph was named spokesperson after Mars 'paused' the spokescandies amid a conservative-media fuss over their redesigns; she pitched spoof 'Ma&Ya's' clam candies before the characters returned in a Super Bowl LVII ad.

Discontinued in the United States in 2005, Crispy M&M's returned to shelves in which year?

2015: Crispy M&M's came back in January 2015 after a ten-year absence, with Mars citing fan demand; the rice-crisp centre had first appeared in 1999.

Which NASCAR driver's No. 18 car carried M&M's sponsorship from 2008 to 2022, winning two Cup titles?

Kyle Busch drove the No. 18 M&M's Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, winning the Cup Series championship in 2015 and 2019; Mars ended its NASCAR sponsorship after the 2022 season.

The first M&M's World store opened in 1997 in which city?

Las Vegas: the store opened in 1997 in the Showcase Mall beside the MGM Grand on the Strip; Orlando, New York and London stores followed.

M&M's styled themselves as the official candy of what in 1998?

The New Millennium: since MM is the Roman numeral for 2000, Mars declared M&M's 'the official candy of the new millennium' in 1998, two years ahead of the date.

Which confectionery process builds up the hard sugar shell on M&M's?

Panning: the chocolate centres tumble in rotating drums while thin coats of sugar syrup are sprayed on and dried, layer by layer, before the 'm' is printed on the finished shell.

Special red, white and blue 'Presidential M&M's' have been given to White House guests since which year?

1988: under Ronald Reagan the boxes replaced packs of cigarettes handed out on Air Force One; each carries the presidential seal and the sitting president's signature, while the candies inside bear only the usual 'm'.

The 'Plain' M&M's variety was renamed what in 2000?

Milk Chocolate replaced 'Plain', and pictures of the colourful candies were added to the brown packaging at the same time.

Which 1967 Petula Clark song did M&M's adopt for its TV ads in 2004?

'Colour My World' was the soundtrack of the 2004 ads, a natural fit for a brand built on its rainbow of colours; Clark's original single dates from 1966–67.

M&M's Minis, sold in plastic tubes, arrived in which year?

1996: Minis came in plastic tubes and got their own mascots, the Swarmees, troublemakers Red and Yellow could never contain; Crispy M&M's followed in 1999.

Which M&M's variety debuted in 2010 with a nervous non-candy sidekick?

Pretzel Guy hated the idea of being stuffed inside a candy. Coconut had gone permanent the same year after a 2009 limited run.

Which of these was one of five heavily Hispanic US cities where dulce de leche M&M's were tested in 2001?

Los Angeles, San Diego, Miami, McAllen-Brownsville and San Antonio got them. The flavour flopped and was gone from most areas by 2003.

A standard plain M&M weighs roughly how much?

0.9 grams: a 1.69-ounce bag holds roughly 55 candies, so each plain M&M weighs just under a gram and carries about four calories.

Mars, Incorporated, maker of M&M's, is headquartered in which Virginia community?

McLean, Virginia, has been Mars's headquarters since 1984; the company is wholly owned by the Mars family and Forbes ranked it the fourth-largest private company in the US in 2022.

Frank Mars founded the first Mars candy factory in 1911 in which city?

Tacoma, Washington: Frank Mars's 1911 venture there failed against local rival Brown & Haley, and the company proper began in Minneapolis in 1920 as the Mar-O-Bar Co.

Which bar, introduced in 1923, did Frank Mars credit to his son Forrest's idea after a malted milkshake?

Milky Way, launched in 1923, put a malted-milkshake flavour into a chocolate-coated nougat bar; Forrest Mars claimed the idea, and the profits bought the family's Milky Way Farm racing estate in Tennessee.

Estranged from his father, Forrest Mars moved to England and created which two products?

The Mars bar (1932) and then Maltesers came out of a small Slough factory Forrest started with $50,000 and the foreign rights to Milky Way; he returned to the US and launched M&M's in 1941.

After retiring in 1973, Forrest Mars founded a premium chocolate company in Nevada named after which relative?

Ethel M Chocolates opened in 1980 in Henderson, Nevada, and Mars Inc. bought it in 1988. Its cactus garden is one of the world's largest.

Besides M&M's, Forrest Mars launched which rice brand in a venture with a Texan businessman?

Uncle Ben's: Forrest Mars backed Texan Gordon Harwell's Converted Rice company in Houston in the 1940s, and the brand was renamed Ben's Original in 2020.

In Europe, M&M's replaced which two existing Mars candy brands?

Treets (peanut) and Bonitos (plain) were Mars's European sugar-shelled brands; M&M's took their place market by market from the late 1980s, while Revels and Minstrels survived as separate Mars lines.

A 2012 British pack of red, white and blue Peanut M&M's was released to mark which occasion?

Yellow dressed up as British stereotypes in the ad trying to get in. Two years later a green-yellow-blue 'Brazilian' pack promoted the World Cup.

In which year did M&M's World open its Leicester Square store in London?

2011: M&M's World London opened in Leicester Square in June 2011, with 35,000 square feet of shop floor, billed as the world's largest candy store at the time.

M&M's 1996 Christmas ad, in which Red and Yellow meet Santa and both faint, has what distinction?

It is the brand's longest-running TV ad: 'They do exist' has re-aired every December since. Hershey's Kisses ran a similar seasonal ad.

Which soft-centred M&M's variety launched across the United States in May 2017?

Caramel M&M's, launched in May 2017, were billed by Mars as the brand's biggest product launch; each candy wraps soft caramel in milk chocolate and the usual sugar shell.

In 1960, which three colours were added to the previously single-colour Peanut M&M's?

Yellow, red and green joined the tan Peanut M&M's in 1960; red was pulled from both lines in 1976 during the dye scare and orange stood in until red returned in 1987.

In which Tennessee city did Mars open a second M&M's factory in 1978?

Cleveland, Tennessee: the 1978 plant joined the original Hackettstown, New Jersey factory, which had been running since 1958, and the two share US production.

Which M&M's variety joined the line-up in 1991?

Peanut Butter M&M's kept the standard colour scheme from the start, unlike Peanut M&M's, which launched in a single shade in 1954.

To celebrate the 1995 colour vote, which landmark did Mars light up in blue?

The Empire State Building was lit blue on the night the result was announced, which also made the network newscasts and the Letterman and Leno shows.

In the 2022 spokescandy redesign, Green swapped her go-go boots for what?

Sneakers: Mars's January 2022 makeover put Green in trainers instead of her white go-go boots and gave Brown lower heels, changes that drew a wave of media mockery.

For the 2004 'Great Color Quest' promotion, M&M's were briefly sold in which colours?

Black and white: during the 2004 Great Color Quest, Mars replaced the usual rainbow with black-and-white candies for a limited time while fans hunted rare single-colour bags; the colours then returned.