They ruined a chance to do something bigger.
M&M’s captured headlines around the world when it announced it would put an “indefinite pause” on its iconic anthropomorphic candy spokescreatures in response to a manufactured outrage over any change to the candies’ appearance — especially the female characters.
The timing was enough to raise plenty of eyebrows. Many, including PR Daily, speculated it was part of a Super Bowl stunt. Indeed, their announcement explicitly said that Maya Rudolph would star in their Super Bowl commercial.
And sure enough, it was all a stunt. One that, impressively, managed to make Maya Rudolph unfunny.
It casts Rudolph as a despotic spokesperson who renames the candies “Ma&Ya’s” after herself and replaces the inside with clams. I don’t know why.
Glimpses of the spokescandies pepper the commercial. And then, in a post-game commercial, it’s confirmed that the rainbow-colored confections are back in.
Yes, this got tons and tons of press before the Super Bowl, getting far out in front of most competitors. But the advertising turned into a PR fail. Here’s how those two disciplines intersected and created an overall negative campaign, despite early promise.
Why the PR failed
There is ultimately a messaging failure that runs through the announcement to the series of Super Bowl ads.
“America, let’s talk,” the initial announcement about putting the spokescandies on pause begins. “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.”
That’s directly referencing a series of segments in which Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson angrily denounced changes to the mascots, especially those that are designed to look female (again, we can’t stress this enough — candies do not have genders).
But in the series of advertisements, there’s no reference to these controversies. The mascots are brought back not because they’re champions of inclusion or because the new designs are great, or even because they’re iconic and delicious. No, they’re brought back because Maya Rudolph sucks and wants to change a tasty candy.
There is no reference to what M&Ms stand for — only what they don’t (which is clams, apparently?). There’s no cheeky pushback at the people seemingly reading a great deal into a chocolate’s perceived sex appeal or lack thereof. There’s all just a sort of silly fizzle that lacks the bravery to dig into what made the revocation of the mascots such big news in the first place.
Now you’ll likely have even greater brand confusion as some people heard the news that the mascots were going away, but then will see them on TV again without the context of the Super Bowl ad sequence.
M&M’s tried to dip a toe in the waters of controversy. And they had a chance to do something memorable — or even just to update their brand and move away from characters who have been in circulation for decades. But no, in the end, they avoided controversy and lied about what they were doing and why.
If it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, you’re not alone.
The resulting press coverage of the ads was less than favorable. CNN and The Washington Post rated it one of the worst ads of the night. The A.V. Club calls it “soul-weakening,” and it ranked at No. 49 out of 57 among all Super Bowl ads in the USA TODAY AdMeter, just two spots ahead of an ad promoting a U2 concert.
Does it feel ridiculous to talk so much about the political implications of candies? You’re darn right it does. But M&M’s had a chance to do something big here. To take a real stand. In the end, they frittered it away and took what had been a big PR moment and made it feel small and ordinary.
What did you think of the campaign? Did it make you want to go buy a bag?
Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.
The post How M&M’s spoiled its PR moment with Super Bowl ads appeared first on PR Daily.
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