Tuesday, January 31, 2006

A Rough Draft of My Doctoral Thesis:The Aesthetics of M&Ms


I'm fixated on M&Ms lately. They're so convenient to eat. I have a crystal cookie jar in my livingroom that I have turned into the candy jar (what does that tell you about things at my house?), and I routinely empty large bags of both peanut and plain M&Ms into it. Recently, I noticed--much to my chagrin--how horridly gaudy they've become.

I blame it on the blue.

There really was no reason to add the blue one into the mix. The original mix was so pleasant: a rather natural and almost autumnal blend of red, green, yellow, orange, tan, and brown. Take a moment to appreciate how lovely the colors look together. Nice, isn't it?

And then, in a misbegotten marketing ploy to hype sales and rekindle interest in what many may have seen as an impossibly old-fashioned confection, the people at M&M/Mars Company decided to launch a campaign whereby the public got to vote on a new color of M&M. And blue won. Did they tell us that poor old tan would be replaced? Honestly, I don't remember. But look at the M&Ms now: red, green, yellow, orange, brown, and blue. Yuck. That's just wrong. It's like...a tutu at a funeral. It's Grandma at pole-dancing class. It's Michael Jackson in...you finish that one.

Sigh. I miss the old M&Ms. And I hate the fussy "Holiday M&Ms", too. Until the day after the Holiday. Then they get marked down to 50% off and I can dump them by the double-bagful into the crystal cookie/candy jar.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:41 AM

    I NEED THE BLUE M&M! (I do, really!)

    Hi there! Came across with such an interesting entry while I was looking for nice M&M pictures (as in, pictures of the edible ones - not cgi's or the puppets toys 'n etcs... you know what I mean!)

    I *think* I can vaguely remember tan M&M's, as I could've been way too young when they got kicked out of the market by... well, BLUE!

    But then again, what's wrong with blue? does it have anything to do with the fact that (as I read somewhere) people doesn't really enjoy blue food?

    (I know pepsi blue for one is VERY disgusting...but such is not the case of the Blue M&M's)

    How about the time they launched purple, black & white, pink, and even pearly ones? Now, if you tell me they're going to add purple to the bag - THAT would be so out of place!

    Thanks for the entry tho - it was very entertaining :) ;)

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  2. I was so sad when they got rid of the tan m&ms! They were my favorite! :( Just looking at that picture made me nostalgic.

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  3. Neil--There are some things that people shouldn't decide, like the NBA all star rosters and M&M colors. People are dumb. Look at who we got stuck with for President the past 7 years.

    adriana--you're welcome. M&M's come in all kinds of colors now, and I guess they're just trying to be more modern and hip. I like classic things and don't think change is necessarily good. Now they have bags of just green ones and market them as "sexy." I don't get it.

    lucy--I always liked tan best, too. It was calming and different; not showy. No other tan candies were out there. Let's start a campaign to bring back the Tan M&M. Seriously, I might start a blog for it. What do you think? Thanks for stopping in, and I hope you catch up on my more current entries. Welcome to the Dept!

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Oh, thank you for joining the fray!

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