Trivia / M&M's

• Kids' Meal Toy: Burger King had two sets of toys in 1997, one of which was a set of candy dispensers that came with a fun-sized pack of M&M's candies. It also featured a female Orange M&M character possibly an early version of Crispy(Orange).
• The Merch: Plenty over the years, besides the products being promoted, but especially notable in what they sell at their M&M's World stores in New York, Las Vegas, and London.
• Milestone Celebration: For the 75th Anniversary of the M&M's brand. Zedd and Aloe Blacc released a cover of the "Candyman Song" that was featured in old animated M&Ms commercials. During this period, Red and Yellow were featured in teasers leading up to the music video's premiere on February 29th, 2016.
• No Export for You: Ads with characters other than Red and Yellow very rarely make it to the United Kingdom for some reason.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Originally, Red and Yellow were voiced by Jon Lovitz and John Goodman, respectively.
  • In the M&M's Adventures video game, Bill Rogers voices Red and Yellow (rather than Billy West and J. K. Simmons voicing them), while Donna Coney Island voices Green (normally voiced by Cree Summer).
• Playing Against Type: J. K. Simmons, known for his villainous or authoritative roles, voices the goofy, ditzy and sweet-natured Yellow.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: It was wildly believed that Blue was originally voiced by Phil Hartman, and that Robb Pruitt replaced him after his death. However in this interview, Robb confirms that he was always the voice of Blue.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The green M&M was originally going to wear high heel shoes but it was scrapped due to technical issues at the time so she was given Gogo Boots instead. Later ads have her (and other female-based M&M characters like Ms. Brown) wear regular high heel shoes when the graphical capability was possible.
• Shifted to CGI: Since 1962, the commercials were done with traditional 2D animation. In 1994, one year before the first Toy Story movie hit theaters, the M&M's started to appear in CGI, partially so they could interact with real people, and have been depicted as such ever since.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Steven Spielberg approached Mars to have M&Ms be the candy that E.T. would munch on. They declined, not thinking the movie would be big enough to move their product. Spielberg then made the same pitch to Hershey, who accepted, and the movie single-handedly put their Reese's Pieces on the map.
  • The Chocolate Bar character was meant to make more appearances in commercials as a recurring antagonist for Red and Yellow but the idea was scrapped due to the death of his voice actor, Phil Hartman. This is ironic seeing that the character in his first and only appearance (in America at least) was melted in a lounge chair.
  • Originally there was going to be a female Orange character according to the Burger King Toy Tie-in from 1997. She was most likely replaced by Crispy(Orange) and possibly similar in personality to the Purple M&M who would debut many years later.
  • Maurice LaMarche was once approached to replace Lovitz as the voice of Red before they went with West. LaMarche would later voice Pretzel Guy with the introduction of Pretzel M&M's.

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