Hilarious woke M&M memes trend after Mars redesigns characters to make them look more "inclusive" 

Mars makes changes to M&M characters to make them more "inclusive" (Image via Mars Incorporated)
Mars makes changes to M&M characters to make them more "inclusive" (Image via Mars Incorporated)

On January 20, 2022, Mars Incorporated announced a redesign to their M&M mascots to be more "inclusive." Weirdly enough, the changes to these mascots are only reflected in the shoes of these characters and their skin colors.

In a press release, Mars said:

"M&M'S promises to use the power of fun to include everyone with a goal of increasing the sense of belonging for 10 million people around the world by 2025."

The company also mentioned that these changes gave the characters varied personalities to promote "self-expression." These anthropomorphized characters will also not be referred to with prefixes before their names, which stresses on their personalities more than their respective genders.


What changes did Mars make to the M&M characters?

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In their bid to make the characters more "inclusive," the redesign focussed on their shoes. Previously, the orange character had an untied shoe, which is now tied. The green female character, who sported heels, now wears sneakers. Similarly, the brown female character, who wore stilettos, now sports a pair of black heels.

Their skin color has also been changed from default fair skin to off-white to promote more inclusion. Mars also stated:

"M&M'S branding will also reflect an updated tone of voice that is more inclusive, welcoming, and unifying, while remaining rooted in our signature jester wit and humor."

These characters also have certain traits as per the candy brand's website. The red one claims to be charismatic, smart yet humble, as well as a perfectionist. The yellow character tries to be more optimistic and employs numerous puns to joke. Similarly, Orange is highly neurotic, and Green claims to be "a hypewoman for my friends."

Meanwhile, Brown employs extreme sass and claims to be "not bossy. Just the boss." The Blue one is apparently very confident.


Here's how people reacted to M&M's character redesign to incorporate a more "inclusive" nature

Mars' character redesign for the characters spawned several humorous memes. Numerous tweets insinuated that the idea of the characters being "woke" was ridiculous. While others joked that the candies will still be eaten despite the "spokescandies" being self-expressive and nuanced.

A few tweets even suggested that this change was part of Mars Incorporated's marketing ploy to initiate a discussion about the "woke" candies.

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Edited by Sandeep Banerjee