After a brief switch up replacing the animated chocolate candies with Maya Rudolph as the official M&M spokesperson, the candy company announced the original spokescandies are “back for good” in the 2023 Super Bowl commercial.
In her first move as the official M&M’s spokesperson, Maya Rudolph made several changes to the brand including swapping out traditional chocolate candies for a less usual version of a tasty snack. In one of a few Super Bowl commercials, Rudolph revealed she renamed them as Ma&Ya’s and replaced the chocolate with candy-coated clams.
Rudolph was first announced to feature as M&M’s spokesperson in the M&Ms Super Bowl ad in January, after Tucker Carlson dealt an on-air argument against the candies’ latest makeover, in which he called them “woke” and “less sexy” on his Fox News program. M&M’s first made renovations to the chocolate circles appearances last year, switching out the Green M&M’s heels for sneakers and the Brown M&M’s stilettos for block heels.
Also among the changes was the addition of a purple M&M, whose presence was meant to highlight “acceptance and inclusivity.” The chocolates also dropped the official “Mr.” and “Ms.” titles from their names.
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“Woke M&Ms have returned. The Green M&M got her boots back, but apparently is now a lesbian maybe? And now there’s a plus-sized, obese Purple M&M,” Carlson said in a segment that aired last year. “The Brown M&M has quote, ‘transitioned from high stilettos to lower block heels.’ Also less sexy. That’s progress. M&M’s will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous, until the moment you wouldn’t want to have a drink with any one of them. That’s the goal. When you’re totally turned off, we’ve achieved equity. They’ve won.”
M&M’s poked fun at Carlson’s outburst in a statement in the winter.
“In the last year, we’ve made some changes to our beloved spokescandies. We weren’t sure if anyone would even notice. And we definitely didn’t think it would break the internet. But now we get it — even a candy’s shoes can be polarizing. Which was the last thing M&M’s wanted since we’re all about bringing people together. Therefore, we have decided to take an indefinite pause from the spokescandies,” the statement reads.
