In January, Mars, the M&M corporation, released a statement saying they plan on making the M&M mascots more diverse and intend to provide inclusion for 10 million people by 2025. They did this by initially replacing the Green M&M’s boots for sneakers and stating, “We all win when we see more women in leading roles.” They made modifications to the Brown M&M: “She transitioned from high stilettos to lower block heels.” Lastly, they changed the Orange M&M’s expressions to, “Acknowledge and embrace his anxiety.”
This attempt at inclusion and diversity has terribly upset some news anchors. The worst being Tucker Carlson of Fox News. He mentions in a segment, “When you’re totally turned off, we've achieved equality, they have won.” He spends nearly 10 minutes complaining, saying the M&M’s are much less attractive and ugly, ultimately coming to the conclusion that he will never eat M&M’s again.
On the other side of reactions to the change in M&M’s, David Pakman of the David Pakman Show comments on Carlson’s anguish, “Does anybody else find it strange that Tucker Carlson is so keyed into how attractive he finds anthropomorphized chocolate candy to be? Does anybody care about this?”
Personally, I think what M&M’s is doing is simply putting them ahead of the curve. Isn't this where society is going? One way politically or another? What really bothers me is grown men’s interests and obsessions with sexualizing candy and blaming it on others. Not to mention it's the news and they choose to cover this when there's so much more going on in the world that needs to be discussed.
I think this is good for M&M’s. I see a company that has decided to follow what they believe and dove head-first into inclusion without fear of disapproval from people like Carlson.
There is no way to please everyone, however, in order to please more people, you need to make them feel safe, and that's exactly what M&M’s are doing. They didn't have to bring light to inclusivity, they didn't have to care, but they did and they will continue to.
I hope those mad about the change realize that sooner or later they will have to enter the real world where things are progressing and inclusion is mainstream. The loss of close-minded and sexist customers won't affect M&M’s as much as they think it will with the influx of customers commending equality.
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