M&M’s Unveils Changes to Candy Mascots

When you pick up your next pack of M&M’s, you may begin to see a handful of changes. Thursday, the iconic candy brand announced an overhaul of its visual identity, including slight adjustments to the company’s branding and the characters found both on the candy’s packaging and in the brand’s marketing efforts.

In a statement distributed by the company, executives wanted to use the brand to help pull everyone together—and that’s why it has opted to provide an added emphasis on the ampersand in its logo, to “demonstrate how the brand aims to bring people together.”

When it comes to the characters—which you can see in the video above—the Mars-owned company made some slight changes, namely in the shoes each of the characters wear. Blue, Brown, and Orange have kept their shoes since they happen to be the company’s latest iterations. Green has been changed from high-top boots to a pair of low sneakers, while Red and Yellow have had their shoes altered to more modern versions.

The changes will carry over into the brand’s marketing efforts, as M&M’s marketing executives have also evolved their look, personalities, and backstories in an attempt to “be more representative of today’s society,” per a release distributed by the company.

“The new M&M’S brand purpose – and the sense of belonging it intends to create – will be reflected across advertising platforms, including but not limited to the graphics, fonts and language we use, the actors, directors and creatives we cast and the scenes we choose to highlight,” a spokesperson for the company says.

These new branding efforts have also led to the M&M’s FUNd, a monetary fund that will offer resources and opportunities in the arts and entertainment spaces. The fund technically started last year with a partnership with the Bentonville Film Foundation, where a $20,000 grant was awarded to upcoming filmmakers.