As promised, Maya Rudolph made her debut as the official spokesperson for M&M’s during the Super Bowl on Sunday night.
Late last month, a statement posted to the candy’s official Twitter account announced that the comedian would be replacing the animated “spokescandies” that have been the face of M&M’s for decades. The message cited the “polarizing” reaction to a recent redesign of the characters as the reason for the change, and many—including LGBTQ Nation—interpreted that as a reference to performative outrage from conservatives like Tucker Carlson over the more “inclusive” character designs.
But it turns out the whole thing was a stunt. Rudolph’s Super Bowl spot featured the Loot star announcing the rebrand of the chocolate treats as candy-coated clam bites called “Ma&Ya’s.”
Of course, the rebrand was a joke.
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In another ad that aired during the big game, the seven M&M’s spokescandies—in their current outrageously “woke” incarnations—appeared at a press conference to announce that they are back for good.
Following the January 23 announcement that the spokescandies would take “an indefinite pause,” M&M’s took plenty of heat for seeming to bend to Carlson’s bad-faith criticism. In a bizarre rant on his Fox News show, Carlson had blasted M&M’s for making its cartoon candies “less sexy.”
“This is A LOT of energy to expend just because Tucker couldn’t achieve tumescence without the help of a laser box after you put your candy in less sexy shoes,” comedian Jay Black commented on M&M’s tweet announcing the change.
“This is absolutely pathetic,” Travis Akers tweeted at the candy company. “You’re backing down from Tucker Carlson because he was sexually confused about your candy?!”
“Your advertising was based on supporting women. You are now backing down from it because a conservative talk show host didn’t like supporting women,” writer Tony Posnanski tweeted, referring to limited edition packages that featured the three female characters. “See, if you take the candy out of it, it’s a pretty crappy thing you did.”
