M&Ms ads - early years

A few weeks ago I posted some thoughts on those little candy mascots the M&Ms. When it comes to candy mascots there is literally none bigger. They showed up in the 50s and 60s but it wasn't until the 80s when advertizing went crazy that the M&M characters themselves started really taking over the entirety of the marketing. Still most of the ads you'll find for M&Ms are from the mid 80S onward. Of course, its not like there were VCRs around before the late 80s so that might be a factor too!

Regardless I thought I'd share some of my favorite M&M commercials with you here. This is by no means a complete list. And I'm not claiming to be any expert on M&Ms or the M&M characters. Like most of you out there I just really love the ads.

Here's a very early 50s ad for M&Ms

From Plain to Peanut. I love it. Swimming in chocolate and zipping up their "sugar" shells. This is the start of something awesome.

In these next two M&M commercials from the 70s they really play up the messiness angle.

Especially in that fist ad I have to say the chocolate mess is pretty gross. While I love the tag line of Melts in your Mouth and Not in Your Hand, I have to say I'm glad they abandoned this angle of marketing. Its not so pleasant to watch.

Jumping ahead again, in 1984 M&Ms became the official candy of the Olympic games (held in LA that year). This is the first time I can find that you really see the M&Ms as a group. A fun loving, partying group.

Doesn't it make sense to see them all together like that? I mean you get a whole bag full. And it works well for the Olympics. 

And then in mid 80s M&Ms got a bigger sized bag. Here are some fun ads for that :)

What I really like about these ads is this they really further develops the M&Ms as a community. They're much more cartoony, and they start to give the M&Ms themselves more of a story.

This next one was a favorite of mine as a kid.

I think this ad is really awesome, no only because the M&Ms all go on vacation with each other, but that they're such a rowdy fun group. I know they don't have their individual personalities developed much at this point, but there's something kind of awesome about having like 30 M&Ms in a big crazy group partying rather than just Red and Yellow on their own. This is what M&Ms were about back then, a family (or at least a fraternity) of candy. Shouldn't M&Ms be a fun loving party all the time?.

Here's another funny one from 1988. I love the way the process is imagined here. That they actually have to go swimming in chocolate and then shower in a candy shell is genius. This is also a good example of some developing personality for Peanut. Such a goofball :)

Tell me that's not a party! And very cutting edge stuff with that computer.

One of the things I always loved about these old M&M commercials that has been lost over the years is that these commercials were so wholesome. They were really family friendly. Now I think people expect different things from their advertising, but I'm nostalgic for these old comfortable ads.

In 1990 M&Ms celebrated their 50th Birthday. a long time for any candy to be around, and Its cool to see the M&M mascots right front and center for the party.

Then finally a breakthrough for M&Ms came in the early 90s. The introduction of   M&Ms Peanut Butter!

And while they'd had limited runs in before this 1992 also saw the permanent introduction of M&Ms Almond.

Finally, we'll end today's look at some old M&M ads with this one where the M&Ms themselves get nostalgic. I like the fact that they can reference their own history. It kind of brings the whole advertising campaign full circle. 

Talk about some enduring mascots, these guys have been though A LOT.

Next time we'll look at M&M ads in the 90s, through the refinement of their personalities and into the new millennium!