Buzz
M&Ms, with their wide array of colors, have been a staple on candy shelves for many years. These chocolate candies, coated with a hard candy shell, provide a sense of comfort and consistency. Shoppers know exactly what they’re getting—blue, brown, yellow, orange, green, and red pieces.
Yet, there was a significant chapter in the M&Ms story, a time when their classic color assortment was disrupted for more than a decade. From 1976 to 1987, red M&Ms were completely absent.
The iconic candy, first created by Mars in 1941, found itself at the center of a brief panic in 1976. During that period, federal regulations flagged red food coloring, specifically Red Dye No. 2, as a potential health hazard. This was sparked by a flawed Soviet study that mistakenly linked the dye to cancer risks. Although there was no definitive evidence, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took precautionary measures by banning the dye.
Despite using Red Dye Nos. 3 and 40, which were deemed safe, M&M's company felt that consumers would reject them anyway.
As Coca-Cola discovered with their New Coke failure, change is not always welcomed by consumers. Mars was overwhelmed with thousands of complaints about the disappearance of red M&Ms, and some universities even created groups to raise awareness about the issue. Among the letters were those from soldiers who had served in World War II, who fondly remembered M&Ms as a comforting treat, as well as from people who had learned to count by sorting the candies.
A man named Paul Hethmon became a dedicated advocate for red M&Ms. A University of Tennessee student in 1982, Hethmon began writing letters to friends, inviting them to join the somewhat tongue-in-cheek Society for the Restoration and Preservation of Red M&Ms. The membership fee was 99 cents.
Although Hethmon was only 12 when the red M&Ms were removed, he told the Chicago Tribune in 1987 that he could still feel the absence. 'You'd open a bag of M&Ms, and you'd immediately notice that there were about 40 billion brown ones,' he recalled. 'It was a really discouraging sight without the red ones.'
Hethmon's idea gained traction, and he began holding meetings to rally support for the return of the red M&M. The quirky story was picked up by the campus newspaper, The Daily Beacon, and eventually made its way to The Wall Street Journal in 1983.
One of the supporters that Hethmon brought on board was Hans W. Fiuczynski, who just happened to be the external relations director for Mars. Fiuczynski found the campaign quite amusing and could clearly see the excitement it was generating among consumers.
In 1985 and 1986, Mars quietly tested the waters by using some covert marketing to gauge how consumers would react to the return of red M&Ms. They released red and green M&Ms as part of a special holiday promotion. While there were some complaints, they were only about the fact that the red M&Ms were a limited-time offering. Customers wanted them to be available all year long, and their wish was soon granted.
In February of 1987, Mars made the announcement that red M&Ms would be making a comeback in both plain and peanut varieties. Fiuczynski, who hadn't forgotten about Hethmon, ensured that the company sent him 50 pounds of M&Ms, all of them red, when the news broke.
In 1995, Mars made another bold move by replacing the tan M&Ms with blue ones. However, there seemed to be little emotional attachment to the change, and it went smoothly without any major issues.
Though it may seem like a distant memory, the M&M controversy of the 1980s is still remembered by many. In a 2019 episode of the popular Netflix series Stranger Things, viewers noticed that the show, set in 1985, featured red M&Ms. Perhaps they were just leftovers from the holiday promotion.
