How M&M’s spoiled its PR moment with Super Bowl ads
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV2ARgWiGok&ab_channel=M%26M%27S
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.
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