Melting Away Public Support: Why the M&Ms Rebrand was a PR Mistake

What happens when a famous chocolate company attempts to align its product with a modern audience? A lot of work for the company’s PR team.

A Bold Decision

M&Ms recently chose to rebrand its iconic M&M characters to better reflect consumers. In an effort to de-sexualize her, the company swapped the Green M&M’s feminine boots with sneakers. It also began marketing the Orange character as more anxious, attempting to identify with members of its audience who struggle with mental health.

Any rebrand for a company is risky business. But a rebrand for an extremely familiar and well- loved company carries even more risk. Add on the intense divisiveness of audiences’ opinions, and M&M’s crafted a recipe for a PR crisis.

It’s chocolate...

PR professionals seek to have positive relations with their publics, and this occurs through symmetrical two-way communication. But relating with publics doesn’t require an intense emotional, social, or political connection. After all, this company makes chocolate! Based on the fiery social media comments after the rebrand, it seems that M&Ms created more problems for itself than a candy company should have. One Instagram follower wrote, “You guys are a candy company. Stop being ridiculous.” From a PR perspective, M&Ms should prioritize promoting its delicious candy over trying to make dessert into a stance on feminism.

If it was never your mission before, why should it be your mission now?

Brands can benefit from taking a stance on causes or social issues...if it’s something they’ve always prioritized. For example, ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s has consistently supported causes like LGBTQ+ rights or climate change activism. But for a brand like M&Ms, which never associated itself with social issues previously, why start now? Many consumers argue that if M&Ms really cared about causes, it would donate money to them, instead of just redesigning cartoon characters. This could serve as a next step for the PR team, as a company’s actions should always align with its words.

Permanent consequences

A company cannot on-a-whim reverse an entire rebrand. And if many people feel angry about the changes to a brand’s image, the PR team will struggle to erase that. The PR team’s next steps may include releasing a statement addressing the comments or choosing to ignore the negative feedback and press forward.

Overall, it seems that publics didn’t receive the rebrand in the way M&Ms hoped. Maybe this rebrand stood as a crisis communication team’s attempt to cover up M&Ms’ other public issues, such as legal trouble surrounding its use of child labor. No matter the reason, M&Ms’ decision quickly melted away much public support and only time will tell how the company responds.

-Micah LaRue ‘23

https://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/mms-character-rebrand-twitter

https://www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2022/01/25/Can-I-still-eat-them-Mars-M-M-S- rebrand-struggles-to-keep-on-message

https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-mms-characters-rebrand-swap-high-heels- sneakers-2022-1

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/01/26/ russell_brand_dont_fall_for_outrage_about_sexy_mms_candy_industry_uses_slave_labor.html