Long before the Green M&M’s sexy heels made conservatives too horny and caused a national emergency, the anthropomorphized candies were controversial icons.
The classic Red and Yellow commercials, featuring 3D animated M&M characters that seem to exist in our world, have been running since the late 90’s, and the “are they cannibals?!” jokes and theories started almost immediately.
But the jokes being well-worn doesn’t mean we don’t deserve an answer! A widely accepted truth seems to be that the living M&Ms are a type of being, and the candy is just made in their likeness. Less cannibalistic and more akin to if I ate a small chocolate human, which seems like something I would probably do.
But this commercial confirms that their “flesh” is chocolate and the shells operate like clothing. So, if they are a different being, they have the same basic composition as the candies. This commercial also confirms that weird guys lusting over these creatures was apparently a thing before Tucker Carlson started doing it.
However, this argument doesn’t hold much water when you consider that there are multiple M&M commercials where the characters acknowledge being made of chocolate, and a handful where they are either almost eaten by humans or even consider eating one another.
I mean, this famous ad from 2000 is entirely built on the joke that M&Ms are nasty little freaks that eat their own kind. So, maybe the argument isn’t that they are or aren’t cannibals, but to what extent they are.
Maybe M&Ms are like chickens and eggs, with the candy being the equivalent of unfertilized eggs and the sentient M&Ms being closer to chickens? Or maybe the characters we know are just M&M candies that were made big and brought to life by scientists at the Mars corporation? Wouldn’t that make it fine they eat M&Ms, if they are already horrible crimes against nature and god?
I think these little candy mascots can be whatever you want them to be. That’s part of what makes them interesting. If they put out a commercial explaining what they are, we’d all be a little disappointed deep down. We’d likely also be horrified.