The color of M&M’s wasn’t always what we now know them to be. They were originally red, yellow, green, brown, and purple. M&M's soon switched purple to tan and then once again switched tan to a different color, but this time, as a marketing tactic, they held an open vote as to which color would be replacing tan. And blue won by 54%. M&M’s then made each color of M&M their own personal mascot, and they all should have their own personalities and designs, but that is not the case for the blue M&M.

The blue M&M is an incredibly bland mascot. He is the only one with no defining characteristics. He is designed exactly like the yellow M&M, and his personality is a more bland version of the red M&M. He is also used very little. On M&M’s official website, on the candy flavors tab, he can only be found on the front of one out of thirty bags available to purchase through the site.

I believe he can be improved by giving him more defining traits. Mr. Peanut is a pretty good example of changing a mascot. What they did with Mr. Peanut was they basically killed him off and turned him into a baby, which brought a lot of attention to the mascot and the brand. M&M’s could go this route as well and make the blue M&M the baby of the group. This is just one of the many things they could do. The main goal is to just make him more distinct from the red and yellow M&Ms.

There is a long history of M&M’s changing and adding colors to their candy. In an article titled “M&MS (History, Flavors, FAQ & Commercials),” published by snackhistory.com, which strives to be an informative database for snacks, written by Jason Kane, it is said that they once even got rid of the red M&M, who is arguably the main mascot, and replaced him with orange because there were rumors that red dye was causing breast cancer at the time. If they straight up got rid of the main mascot at one point, I don’t think it’s too far-fetched that they could possibly make some changes to one of the less main mascots.

According to a September 2021 article titled “Brand Mascots Will Send Your Profits and Emotional Connection Soaring,” published by campaignlive.co.uk, which has been around since 1968, written by Sara Nelson, it is said that “mascots can increase profits and emotional connections to customers up to 41%,” so it’s safe to say that how well a mascot is thought out is pretty important.

It can be hard to get a big company to listen to customers. But if enough people are vocal about something, companies do sometimes listen. If you sign this petition, it moves us one step closer to having the blue M&M not just be a copied and pasted version of the red and yellow M&M’s.