How M&M's are made

The chocolate jelly brand M&M's (owned by Mars Inc.) has not changed its creative platform since 1995. The reason for this is the dizzying success of a simple idea, without which no brand advertising campaign can now do. 21 years ago, from the pen of creative director of BBDO New York, Susan Creedle, colorful characters came out that made M&M's famous throughout the world. The story of the sweet couple was recalled by Sostav.ru.

In 1940, the son of the founder of the Mars company, Forrest Mars, invented M&M's dragees. Businessman patented own recipe: chocolates, covered with a layer of multi-colored sugar icing, which do not melt in the sun and do not stain hands and clothes. It is believed that Mars got the idea from the Spanish, who ate chocolate balls covered in frosting during the Civil War.

The production of multi-colored dragees was undertaken by the M&M Candies division, located in Newark, USA. The name of the product - M&M's - appeared thanks to the abbreviation of the surnames of the company's founders: Mars and Murier, the second co-founder of the brand.

World War II brought the candy its popularity, largely due to the cylinder-shaped packaging that American soldiers carried with them. With the end of the war, this format disappeared, replaced by rectangular bags, which the brand uses to this day. In the 2000s, “cylinders” returned, albeit in limited edition: dragees in similar packaging could be found in Duty Free stores.

In the 1960s, the slogan “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands” was belatedly introduced, and a black letter “M” appeared on candy for the first time. Sales of the product in the United States began to grow at a breakneck pace, and in the 1980s, it was decided to expand the brand, which had become the main one for Mars Corporation, to other markets. The dragee was received well in the world, but by 1995 this momentum faded and sales began to fall.

Then M&M’s management turned to the BBDO New York agency with a request to “revive” the brand. Susan Creedle, who then served as creative director, took up the matter. Credle admitted to Business Insider that back then the image of brightly colored jelly beans was at the level of "simple candy that you could snag in the store aisle."

To change this situation, BBDO New York received $30 million from Mars for everything, including brand strategy, media and creative creation. According to Creedle, this amount is nothing compared to the advertising budgets of equally iconic brands - Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

However, a simple idea saved creatives from expensive research and much thought. Together with her team, Susan Creedle came up with the so-called “comedy ensemble”, which consisted of animated candies of several colors: yellow, red, blue, green, brown and orange.

Red is a sarcastic and cautious character who periodically grumbles at his best friend. This is Yellow - he is kind and simple by nature, but not devoid of curiosity. They were joined by the “cool” skeptic Blue, whose addition to the M&M’s range was voted by over 10 million people. After that, Orange and the strict Mrs. Brown were added to the four friends.

Their beautiful Green Girlfriend debuted on screens a little later, in 1997, and gained incredible success among television viewers. Creedle told a funny story about this girl, because of which the seductress became the favorite character of the creative director of BBDO New York. In the first sketches, the beauty had no ankles, which violated the heroine’s sexy image, and the creators argued for a long time about Zelenaya’s shoes. Creedle ended up going to Madison Avenue and buying high-heeled go-go boots, which saved the day by “appearing” on the Green.

According to Creedle, the team could not have foreseen how successful the brand could become after introducing colorful characters. The team debuted the characters during the Super Bowl alongside other iconic brands, and the commercial was a hit with audiences who loved the funny characters. Products began to be snapped up again, and the task assigned to BBDO New York was completed.

Then Creedle had an idea - to launch a campaign with the participation of three different celebrities. And she thought that this would explode the market and everyone would say that now M&M's is playing big. But due to the limited budget, everyone only saw one video, and they didn’t talk about it the next day. This taught Credle to listen to other opinions , and not just themselves. However, that same “wow” effect happened a few years later, when the first M&M's World brand store opened in Las Vegas in 1997. Then BBDO decided to go beyond the commercials and rolled up its sleeves and took on Shelf merchandising. stores were flooded with dragees in various packages with famous characters.

Once upon a time, m ms dragees seemed like something transcendental - an unusual, bright, cheerful sweetness that gave pleasure. The creation of such an image took a long time, probably a lot of money was spent on it. And the result is lasting - at the sight of such bright candies, everyone is thrilled with the desire to try them.

What then to say about children? They simply sweep away everything in their path to taste such a tasty treat, which attracts with its bright color and sweet taste.

Therefore, today we decided to carefully study the m ms dragee with peanuts in order to understand the benefits or harms of this product.

It seems that such candies - great option snack or treat: spectacular, small, tasty, and also with healthy nut.

Only any sane buyer will immediately ask the question - where does such a rich color come from and why don’t the dragees melt in their hands?

Let's look at the composition:

The image is reduced. Click to see original.

There are special complaints about those dyes that give unnatural colors. E171 is titanium dioxide; its harm has not been proven, but there is evidence that it is involved in liver and kidney diseases. E133 is called “brilliant blue”, it is extracted from coal tar, it is an artificial dye, so sensitive people may experience choking and other allergic symptoms. We have already written about carmine; this dye is natural, but is made from insects, and also sometimes causes unwanted reactions.

There are also adequate dyes - E150d (sugar color), curcumin, carotene.

That same crispy shell is obtained due to carnauba wax and special-purpose fat. And if the first ingredient is of natural origin and is at least excreted from the body, then it is difficult to say anything about the second, because behind this phrase there can be any kind of fat, and this is already dangerous. If it weren't for the glaze, we would have had a completely different look at the candies.

The image is reduced. Click to see original.

Only the components of this delicacy, at least for me personally, do not allow me to completely relax so that I can eat these sweets and calmly enjoy the taste. And I don’t want to recommend them to others, because I think this price-benefit ratio is threatening.

Brand: M&M's

Slogans: It's more fun together anywhere! Milk chocolate. Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.

Industry: confectionery industry

Products: chocolates

Year the brand was founded: 1941

Owner: Mars Inc

M&M's- brand of Mars Inc. The production of multi-colored dragees is carried out by the M&M Candies division, founded in 1940 in Newark, USA (Newark, USA). At that time the factory was called M&M Ltd. The founder of the Mars company, Forrest Mars, is considered the inventor of M&M's; he invented and patented his way of covering chocolate candies with a layer of multi-colored sugar glaze; in this form, the sweets do not melt and do not stain hands and clothes. There is a version according to which Forrest Mars “spied” the idea during the Spanish Civil War, thus covering it with a layer of sugar, the soldiers ate chocolate to escape the sun.

In order to launch the product into production during difficult war times, Forrest Mars needed additional investment, and Bruce Murrie, the son of the executive director of the Hershey company, became his partner.

Hence the name of the product M&M's- “belonging to Mars and Murrie,” and, despite the fact that, after some time, the partners separated, and Forrest Mars bought out Murrie’s share, the second letter M is still present in the name today.

Most people know and love M&M's candies - tiny multi-colored chocolates that, as everyone remembers, “melt in your mouth, not in your hands.” But hardly anyone imagines the process of their production. Fortunately, Business Insider recently visited Mars Chocolate North America in Hackettstown, New Jersey, where 50% of all M&M's sold in the United States are made.

Today we’ll find out how everyone’s favorite sweets are made.

Mars Chocolate, a division of Mars Corp. whose candy, pet food and beverage businesses are worth about $33 billion, produces M&M's and other popular candies, including Snickers, Dove, Milky Way and Twix. The Hackettstown factory opened in 1958. It employs 1,200 people and is also home to the office of the North American division. The Mars Corporation was founded by Forrest E. Mars Sr. in 1941. In 1982, her candies became the first in space.

The sweet aroma of chocolate can be felt as soon as you enter the factory, which is located just a few hundred meters from the Mars Chocolate office in Hackettstown, New Jersey.

When you enter the factory, you are asked to remove all jewelry. Why does the employee check visitors’ nails for varnish? This is done to prevent chipped varnish from getting into the candy. Those with painted nails are asked to wear gloves. In addition, visitors are given lab coats with the inscription “Mars” on them, like all employees.

Guests are also provided with helmets, safety glasses, earplugs and hair nets.

Any person entering a factory must be dressed like this.

Before entering the workshops, visitors must wash their hands, even if they are wearing gloves.

The factory tour begins in a hallway decorated with colorful drawings of M&M's characters.

The Hackettstown factory produces Milk Chocolate M&M's, Mini M&M's, Peanut M&M's and 21 products in a variety of colors and designs.

“Mixing and softening the chocolate is very important,” says Eida, an employee at the factory. Conching is the first step in the process where all the chocolate ingredients are mixed.

The chocolate is then sent to normalization, where it is heated to the correct temperature to create the desired M&M's shape.

Chocolate pieces move through cooling tunnels before being coated with colorful icing.

Here visitors can try the freshest M&M's in the world.

Once the candies have cooled, they are given color. This process cannot be rushed.

The color is applied slowly until the candies take on a vibrant hue.

Brand colors are yellow, red, green, brown, orange and blue, the newest color. It was introduced in 1995 when consumers voted on a color to replace the light brown M&M's that had been in production since the late 1940s.

For Peanut M&M's, the nuts, which come to Hackettstown primarily from the southeastern United States, are first roasted. They are then drizzled with chocolate in three layers to achieve the desired ratio.

Millions of M&M's are made here every day. The factory, whose area is approximately 42.7 thousand square meters, is very noisy and smelly. The sweet smell penetrates the fabric. It may seem pleasant at first, but according to the employee, as soon as you get home, it smells like sour milk.

Much of the process is secret, and many places do not allow filming. “For such a small piece of chocolate, M&M's are surprisingly complex. We cannot share all the details of the production process because we want to preserve the mystery and magic around the letter “M”. Many people want to know how the letter “M” is put on each M&M’s, but this is still a big secret,” says a factory employee.

Once all the candies are marked with the letter “M”, the batch is packaged and shipped nationwide.

"M&M's taste exactly the same today as they did when they were first produced in 1941, and this is a direct result of our focus on sustainability and quality," explains Eida.

It takes 10-12 hours to produce a package of M&M's from start to finish.

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