M&M’s pop up in pop music and entertainment history

For many years, brown was the predominant color of the button-shaped, bite-sized candies found in packages of M&M’s. Not anymore. 

Brown went from most to least. The timing coincided with publicity associating brown M&M’s with the hard rock music band Van Halen.

 

Known as “the ultimate party band” in the early 1980s, Van Halen’s concert performances were cutting edge – high-tech and full of bells and whistles. 

Behind the scenes, the band was exceptionally detail-oriented, said Julie Zeveloff, an editor with Insider.com. 

For example, she said Van Halen specified that concert promoters stock the backstage area with a specific menu of “munchies.” A must-have was M&M’s, but absolutely “no brown ones.”

 

“For years, it was seen as complete folly – the band was making a ridiculous demand of concert organizers simply because they could get away with it,” Zeveloff wrote. “But the seemingly ludicrous request was actually a shrewd business move.” 

Many years later, “lead singer David Lee Roth explained that the bowl of M&M’s was an indicator of whether the concert promoter had actually read the band’s complicated contract,” Zeveloff noted. 

Roth said: “If I came backstage and I saw brown M&M’s on the catering table, then I guarantee the promoter had not read the contract rider, and we would have to do a serious line check of the entire stage setup.”

 

Most rock’n’roll fans viewed the “no brown M&M’s” mandate purely as a statement of candy preference. They began to express concern about “what’s wrong with the brown ones?” Did this message waft its way into the executive suites at Mars Incorporated? 

It’s hard to say…but the company did change the mix. Today, the “company formula” for each package of M&M’s is standardized with: 24% blue; 18% orange; 16% green; 15% yellow; 14% red; and 13% brown. 

Another M&M’s chapter from the same era in entertainment history deals with the blockbuster film “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” which was released in 1982. 

In the initial draft of the screenplay written by Melissa Mathison, the character Elliott left a trail of M&M’s to lure the shy alien, E.T., to his home. 

Producer Kathleen Kennedy said that Mars executives were hesitant to give consent because Director Steven Spielberg didn’t want to send the script. The air of secrecy didn’t sit well with the Mars family; they stalled.

 

Joe Bergren of Entertainment Tonight said Spielberg commented at the time: “Well, what’s my next favorite candy?” 

Hershey’s Reese’s Pieces were relatively new, having been rolled out in 1978, as an extension of the popular Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. 

Bergren reported that Hershey’s said “yes,” becoming “the candy of the hour and Spielberg’s new “most favorite candy.” Spielberg said: “We sort of helped each other.”

 

In 1982, The Washington Post stated: “Hershey Foods reports sales of Reese’s Pieces are up 70% since the film was released last month.” 

The newspaper lauded Jack Dowd, Hershey’s vice president for new business development at the time. 

He flew out to Hollywood on his own dime. The Spielberg team didn’t show him the script ether, but but gave assurances that E.T. was going to be “a lovable character in a family film.” Dowd agreed to commit $1 million on the spot to get Reese’s Pieces in the movie.

 

Kenneth Rawley of the Albany (N.Y.) Business Review said: “Immediately after the movie’s debut…Hershey couldn’t make enough candy to fill orders. The candy became one of the top-selling candies in the world.” 

“Dowd was profiled in People magazine and named “Consumer Products Man of the Year.”