What does each “M” in the popular candy, M&Ms, stand for?
QUESTION OF THE DAY
DECEMBER 21, 2020
The answer is Mars and Murrie. Forrest Mars, Jr. (son of the Mars Company founder) teamed up with Bruce Murrie (son of Hershey Chocolate’s president) to bring the candy from the United Kingdom to the United States. Murrie received a 20% stake in the company, and for several years, M&M’s were actually made using Hershey’s chocolate! The two M’s didn’t see eye-to-eye on the company’s direction, however. In 1949, Mars bought out Murrie for Murrie for $1 million and took control.
M&Ms, produced by mega $165 billion confectioner Mars, are one of the most popular candies in the world. Let’s explore some other traditions and fun facts about these bite-sized treats and the company that makes them.
Fun Facts about Mars M&Ms
1. They were not the first candy from Mars
The company founder and namesake, Frank C. Mars, had contracted polio as a child. He was confined to the home. Between homeschool lessons, his mother would also teach him how to hand-dip chocolate at the kitchen table.
Mars first product was butter cream candy before expanding to chocolate with the Mar-O-BAR. The candy is not a huge hit, but 1923, they produce the Milky Way. Sales boom and the company expands its workforce and relocates to Chicago. In 1930, it has another huge hit with the Snickers candy bar.
2. M&M candies got their start with the Spanish Civil War
In 1932, Mars was already a successful candy company. Forrest E Mars had officially joined the business in 1929, but he didn’t always see eye-to-eye with his father. He moves to the UK with the dream of beginning his own candy company. As the legend goes, he visited Spain during its civil war around 1937 and witnessed soldiers there eating candy covered chocolate during the summer. Like any good candy man, he knew that chocolate sales plummeted in the summer due to the melting in a pre-air conditioned America.
This story of inspriration is probably a little closer to one of imitation. The candies being eated in Spain were called Smarties and produced by Rowntree’s of York. They were a huge hit. By 1941, Mars had patented the candy in the U.S, developed a manufacturing process, and partnered with Murrie to produce the candy at the Hershey’s facilities.
3. The original M&Ms came in plastic tubes
In the very early days, M&Ms saw its biggest sales from the US military. World War II was reaching its peak, and the US governtment purchased millions of M&Ms to include witin the soldiers rations.
The original M&M packaging was in small cardbord tubes (see the photo above). These were durable and many of the soldiers would put the candy in their pocket for a quick pick-me-up. When the soldiers returned from the war, many sought out M&Ms at their local markets and fueled the continued surge in demand for the candy. It wasn’t until 1950 that Mars introduced the small brown bag simliar to the packaging of M&Ms today.
4. The “Ms” were not originally pictured on the candy
M&Ms originally came in five colors but without any lettering on them. In 1950, they first featured the letter “M.” It was printed in black, and Forrest Mars demanded the that “M” be printed precisely in the middle of the circular candy. Rumor has it that he would periodically buy bags of candy around town and inspect each for any candies with an “M” off-center. By 1954, the “M” had switched to a white letter and it hasn’t changed since.
5. The M&M characters appeared in 1954
The Mars company had always been at the forefront of marketing. They were one of the first to adopt radio as an advertising medium in the 1930’s, sponsoring a show called Dr. IQ and even making a candy bar by the same name.
The original M&M characters appeared on TV in 1954. While they did not looks anything like the popular characters endorsing the brand today, they were a hit with consumers.
6. Peanut M&Ms were introduced in 1954
1954 was a big year for the Mars company! In addition to creating the M&M characters, they also debuted the peanus M&M. Initially, they were only available in the color tan, which seems a strange choice. I suppose tan is similar to the color of peanuts and indicates what was in them – though you’d think the oblong shape would adequately do that?
While Forrest Mars was no doubt pleased with the popularity of the peanut M&M, he couldn’t take much credit as the inventor. He was allergic to peanuts!
7. M&Ms grows its own peanuts
By 1964, the success of M&M peanuts meant that Mars was going through a LOT of peanuts annually. This exposed them to risks in the pricess of peanuts dependent on the weather and other factors. So, in 1964, they establisehd their own peanut farm and factory in Albany, Georgia, the heart of peanut country.
It was called Peanut Craftsman and peanut M&Ms weren’t the sole reason for the need. The popular Mars Snickers bar also required a massive amout of peanuts to produce for the world.
8. ET should have been eating M&Ms, not Reese’s Pieces
The Extra-Terrestrial” was the biggest movie hit of 1982, winning four Academy Awards. It remains the fourth most-successful movie of all time in the U.S
While preparing to film E.T., director Steven Spielberg approached Mars to ask if he could use M&M’s in the scene where Elliott lures the timid alien his hiding in the fores. It remains unclear why Mars said no to the opportunity. Perhaps they thought it would be a bad movie? Regardless, Spielberg went to Hershey’s and they were all over it. Instea of using Reese’s peanut butter cups, as Spielberg had initially requested, they used Reese’s Pieces candies.
The result was a massive success for Hershey’s. After just the first two weeks following the premier of ET, sales of Reese’s Pieces had exploded 65%.
9. The word record for the most M&Ms eaten in one minute
On Nov 4, 2011 in Katy, Texas, Alyjha Williams ate 92 M&Ms in one minute. For whatever reason, he was dressed as Batman while he did it and you can watch the video on recordsetter.com. The word record for the most M&Ms eaten in a minute while blindfolded is 20 by Ashrita Furman. What the heck? Why would a blindfold slow someone down so much? Regardless, Furman is a bit of a world record junkie, holding the most Guinness world records of any person. He has set more than 600 records, and we’re guessing a lot of them are adding a blindfold.
10. Van Halen’s concert rider required the removal of brown M&Ms
The folklore is that the rock band Van Halen’s concert rider, which is the requirements of booze, food, etc that a venue much provide, included plenty of M&Ms backstage. However, they specifically required that all of the brown M&Ms had been removed. This was checked out by the fact-checking site Snopes.com, and it appears to be true. They were able to actually obtain a copy of the rider and it’s pretty clear.
Crazy rider demands from mega rock bands are nothing new. Kanye West requested a barber chair and a slushie machine with acoholic cocktails. Rihanna insisted upon black drapes with “blue chiffon” and an animal print rug. But the idea of some poor schmuck sorting through thousands of M&Ms just to remove the brown ones is too good. This idea was also imortalized in the movie Wayne’s World 2.